


A Hero's Call

by Babykitsune9



Category: Bleach, 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia
Genre: Bakugou Katsuki & Midoriya Izuku are Best Friends, Cute Midoriya Izuku, Dead People, Depressed Kurosaki Ichigo, F/M, Female Kurosaki Ichigo, Ichigo is sad, Implied/Referenced Sexual Assault, Katsuki calls ichigo his princess, Multi, Parental Yagi Toshinori | All Might, Powerful Ichigo, Protective Aizawa Shouta | Eraserhead, Protective Bakugou Katsuki, Protective Midoriya Izuku, Protective Yagi Toshinori | All Might, Suicidal Thoughts, Toshinori is Ichigo's guardian, Unplanned Pregnancy, chad is a good bro, protective chad sado, really really protective
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-13
Updated: 2020-12-19
Packaged: 2021-03-07 21:08:30
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 46
Words: 81,138
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26994178
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Babykitsune9/pseuds/Babykitsune9
Summary: Her appearance here was nothing more than a desperate effort to save a friend. She didn't know these people. She didn't know where she was.She was alone.All she knew was that she hated how there were so many Hero's here when her world had so few. And it was a damned tragedy.Fem Ichigo story. Dad Toshinori. Protective Shota and class 1-A. no pairings yet.
Relationships: Ichigo Kurosaki/ Katsuki Bakugo, Kurosaki Ichigo & Midoriya Izuku, Kurosaki Ichigo & Yagi Toshinori | All Might
Comments: 108
Kudos: 273
Collections: oc self insertSI





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> New story! 
> 
> I'm trying to work my way up to a kinky Katsuki/Ichigo story. But until then, here's this.

It was mid September when she appeared in their lives. And up until then, none of them had even realized that there was anything... _lacking_ in their lives. They had certainly never expected someone to appear in front of them out of thin air. Nor everything that would follow after.

But there wasn't a day that went by when they all weren't thankful for her presence for some reason or another.

Shota was co-teaching a class with Toshinori that day. Finals were coming up and they were both trying to cram as much lessons into their classes as humanly- or _inhumanly_ as possible- if one dared to look closely at Toshi's lesson plans. The man was totally obsessed with color coding everything that he wrote down.

So much so that his lesson books were filled with rainbow colored and slightly deranged babblings that dangerously mimicked Midoriya's own note books and such.

If not for the fact that the two were certainly not blood related, someone might have thought that Midoriya was the pro-hero's long lost love child or something. They seriously were far too alike sometimes in Shota's opinion.

"Watch yourself Momo!" He called out when he saw his student staggering a little bit before she let out a yelp and tumbled to the ground where she'd been training for the past hour. He visibly cringed a little bit, already betting that she'd probably twisted an ankle or something as Toshinori zipped past him as fast as he could to check on her.

Shota scowled at the blondes back for a moment before calling out to him in a slightly irked tone, "It isn't our job to coddle them All Might." When he caught the man trying to do just that.

Toshinori flushed with embarrassment and quietly apologized and then slowly slunk away from the girl so that she could resume her training.

That small incident aside, everyone was taking to their individual training very well. And would be, _hopefully_ , passing their finals for the year. At least if they didn't want him to personally murder them all in their sleep anyways.

It had been nearly six months since the attack on the school. Four since the attack on the students while they'd been at camp and since Bakugo's kidnapping and rescue and the aftermath that had immediately followed.

And since then their security protocols had been seriously upgraded to prevent Villains from appearing within their school ever again.

So naturally he was beyond startled when he found himself blinking and then suddenly staring down the business end of a very long, and vicious looking wide black blade that looked heavy enough to crush him like a little bug if it were dropped at any second now.

As it was he very nearly got taken out by it before he could throw himself out of the way.

He was in a couching position on the ground to the left of the massive blade, his eyes glowing as he employed his quirk and began to unwind his capture tool so that he could stop whoever- no _whatever-_ it was that was holding the damned thing.

For the moment no one else had seemed to notice the sudden...appearance of the thing. Which meant that he was on his own for now. But he knew that as soon as someone else in the training area saw he/she/it then there was going to be a whole lot of people swarming to pick the thing apart.

And since it hadn't moved just yet, that gave him a little bit of time to look he/she/it over for some sort of weakness.

It didn't even seem human to him at first. At least, he'd never seen anything human that looked quite like that. The bone white mask covering it's facial features was chilling. Honestly it creeped him out. And then there was the clawed fingertips. The torn and bloody clothing that barely hid a _very_ feminine-esque torso.

It had bones sticking out of it's skin here and there. Deep disturbing looking bruises and other injuries that he couldn't quite place.

However he couldn't seem to hold back the foul oath that was resting on his tongue as he finished his quick visual sweep of the thing, and spotted a small person- a child maybe? Could whoever it had be one of his _students_?- wrapped in one of it's arms.

Growling in anger- after all, how dare this thing grab someone/one of his problem students! He started to move towards it when he heard Toshinori's annoying All Might laugh second before he appeared, his muscle form caving in some of the ground underneath him. And nearly knocking Shota off of his feet as the man placed himself firmly between him and the thing.

"No need to fear! For I am here." Toshi said, his tone laced with barely contained rage as he kept his eye on the thing. "It would seem that we have an unwelcome visitor."

"I noticed." Shota muttered. He didn't bother to say anything about that damned sword nearly taking him out a few seconds ago. Toshi would fuss over him just like a other hen if he knew.

And frankly that was one hit that his pride as a hero just wouldn't be able to withstand. Not gracefully anyways.

"Where did you come from, hn?" Toshinori asked with a slight tilt of his head, as he looked it over almost curiously. It wasn't lost to either of them that the damned thing still hadn't moved an inch just yet. But they also weren't going to wait and see what it could do before they took it out.

The strange thing about it...was that it continued to hold perfectly still up until Toshi used a burst of speed to take it's hostage from it. Once that was done, the thing seemed to finally move.

Wheeling on the blond with a furious shriek that nearly made Shota's ears bleed before it then lunged at him. Dropping the sword as it did so.

Whether it was actually trying to attack him or take it's hostage back, Shota didn't have a clue. But he couldn't let it hurt the man since he had an innocent bystander in his arms and couldn't defect or dodge very well without putting that person at risk.

It barely got close enough to snarl in his face because he had it wrapped in his capture tool and was dragging it back away from him.

The thing shrieked, snapped it's teeth and thrashed about wildly in an effort to free itself when Bakugo, Midoriya, and several other of their students finally seemed to realize that they were under attack and ran to help Shota by grabbing his capture tool and pulling on it hard.

The thing let out a scream as it's feet slipped out from under it and it fell and hit the ground face first.

What followed was a weirdly loud cracking sound. Almost like the sound of glass or ice breaking apart. After which the thing lifted it's head to glare at Toshinori, and part of it's bone mask fell away.

It was difficult to say what happened next. Everything seemed to happen so fast.

But the thing finally managed to get an arm loose from the capture tool, and even with Shota, and several of the kids pulling on it- somehow still managed to drag itself across the ground to where Toshi was and reached up and grabbed the clothing of the small body in the blond's arms. And _pulled_.

The body was yanked right out of Toshinori's hands and hit the ground shattering into a million pieces and fragments almost like a glass doll.

Toshi was understandably rooted in place from the horror of what had just happened. While Shota and the kids froze up and let the capture tool slip from their numb fingers in shock.

Each of their minds uncomprehending of what had just occurred as the thing screamed. The sound was maddened and painful. Almost as if the thing was mad with grief before finally screaming out.

_"Saten Kesshun!"_

Tiny little glowing things zipped all around them before finally coming to a stop, hovering around the things head. It reached up with one hand and tugged what was left of the broken mask from it's head and let it fall to the ground revealing one of the most achingly beautiful faces that Shot and the rest of them had ever seen.

It was buried underneath dirt, grime, and caked on dried blood. But even underneath all of that, it was still so lovely that the girl almost looked like an angel.

"Bring her back." She finally said, jarring them all from their shocked stupors. "Bring Rukia back!"

"Your injured Ichigo." One of the little things said. It was a fairy from the looks of it.

"You need to let us heal you." Another chimed in. It sounded worried. And from the looks of the girls many injuries, Shota wasn't exactly sure that he could entirely blame it.

"You'll die if we don't!" Another said.

The girl was quiet for a moment or so before saying firmly. "Good. Then let me die." Oblivious to the world around her, she didn't see the effect that her words had on any of them. "Use my heart. My lungs, my bones, blood and flesh to bring Rukia back..."

"B-But you're essentially telling us to kill you!" A male fairy chimed in this time, sounding both upset and sad.

"Then do it! Let me die and bring her back! I'll die of these injuries in a little while anyways. At least this would make my passing easier. To know that I didn't fail to save her. That I kept my promise to save her even if it killed me..."

Toshinori looked like he were about to collapse to his knees. Midoiya didn't look much better when Shota cast a glance around at the others. Bakugo looked...pale, but still as pissed as he always did.

So he had nothing to immediately fear there. The boy would likely bounce back much easier than Midoriya or Toshinori would.

The fairies and the girl fell quiet again for a heartbeat or so before one of them finally said, "I'm sorry, but we just can't return Rukia to life. She's beyond repair." And then they all vanished just as suddenly as they had appeared.

Leaving her broken.


	2. Chapter 2

The abrupt disappearance of the fairies, Shota and Toshinori were spurred into action.

It had finally dawned on the two men that the girl had had no interest in fighting anyone. She had been attempting to find someplace _safe_ to get help for herself and her friend. However with her friend now gone- dead- and the unknown severity of the girl's injuries, the two knew that they would need to move quickly to get her the proper help.

Shota had already cataloged the multiple broken bones she was suffering from.

And to be utterly honest, he didn't know how she had even managed to move. Some of her broken bones were sticking out of her skin and she was bleeding from other various injuries. Slash marks. Cuts. Gnashes here and there that looked as if they were bone deep.

Her breathing was labored. Indicating some sort of internal pressure, either on her lungs or her heart. And when he moved to kneel down next to her at the same exact moment that she wound up vomiting up blood- well, he nearly jumped out of his skin.

Toshinori was a little bit more steady at the sight of her vomiting up blood. But that was probably because he was so used to doing it himself before he had his lung and stomach surgeries. Which had essentially saved him from wasting away slowly after he'd been injured fighting a villain a while back.

Toshi placed a large hand on one of her shoulders, mindful that she may have more broken bones than they could actually see and used the other to rub her back as Shota called out to the kids and asked if anyone had gone for Nezu or anyone else just yet as he started to tear his clothing into strips so that he could attempt to bandage some of the wounds.

He was only vaguely relieved to hear that a couple of the kids had noticed the girl's appearance and had run for help. So they would likely be swarmed by people any moment now.

The girl vomited up blood several more times allowing Toshinori to calculate a specific amount of how much she'd just lost before he used his grip on her to slowly ease her back onto the ground to lay there.

"A pint." The man muttered underneath his breath once she was lying down. His blue eyes sweeping over her other injuries before he quickly amended, "No- Two pints."

She'd likely need a blood transfusion as well as surgery to ease any internal injuries she was suffering from. However even so- something was nagging at Shota's mind. Something that he couldn't quite put his finger on at the moment. But he was starting to feel panicked about it.

And if not for Midoriya finally finding his voice and asking in alarm, "Why isn't she crying or screaming?" He wouldn't have figured out what was wrong. At least not right then anyways. "I mean, she has to be in pain, right?"

"Of course she's in pain." Bakugo snapped at him. The sheer anger and rage lacing his tone was slightly startling.

No doubt he was pissed about how the two of them had helped to try and capture her earlier. And probably wondering if maybe they had done something to aggravate her current condition even more.

"So why isn't she _crying_ or _screaming_?" Izuku asked again. His tone bordering on urgent this time.

He and Toshinori shot the boy a look before refocusing on the girl. She was fading fast, the two of them could see it in the way she kept trying to focus her eyes but couldn't. Her breathing was barely present now- just little wheezing, gurgling gasps.

They were so focused on trying to save her that they weren't aware of the fact that Nezu, and the rest of their co-workers had finally arrived with the police.

"Recovery Girl!" Midoria screamed as he turned and started running towards the other heroes screaming at the top of his lungs for her to come and help.

The sounds of his screams was a bit distracting to Shota and Toshinori. After all, they associated kids screaming with trouble.

They half expected Bakugo to turn and run after him like he always did, however the boy surprised them by finally moving to kneel on the ground beside the girl, and taking one of her limp hands in his own as she continued to struggle for breath. "Hey, girly. Can you hear me?" He asked, his voice soft.

The girl's eyes flickered over to him and he smiled slightly. "We need you to hang on just a little bit longer. Help's coming. Do you think that you can do that?"

"No." She wheezed. "D-Don wanna..."

Bakugo reached out and used a finger to gently tip her head towards him and growled out, "You ain't dying. Not here. Not today. _We're going to save you_."

* * *

Two months later-

To say that Shota had nightmares about that day would be an understatement. And he wasn't the only one either. Toshinori, Midoriya and Bakugo did too. Though they each had them for entirely different reasons.

Toshi still felt considerable guilt over dropping the girl's friend since having her shatter like glass was probably what had killed her. Or at least that was what he felt anyways. It probably hadn't really occurred to him just yet that whatever it was that had made the girl fragile enough to shatter in the first place, was probably what had actually killed her.

Midoriya felt guilt over not asking questions first and determining whether or not she was really a villain before attempting to apprehend her.

And Bakugo...had assigned himself the grim task of collecting the shattered body of the girl's friend. You know, for burial since he had figured that the girl would want that for her friend.

They had saved the girl, Ichigo that day, though she hadn't wanted them too.

It had been touch and go for a little while. And she had flatlined three times while being taken to the nearest hospital. But she had managed to survive just the same.

He, Toshinori, and sometimes even some of the others heroes and the kids went to see her since she'd been placed on suicide watch ever since her injuries had healed up.

And sometimes during those visits they had questioned her about how she'd become injured. Where she'd come from. Was there anyone that they needed to contact to come for her?

Most days she'd ignored them and their questions and seemed to be content with simply sitting in the window of her hospital room and watching the world outside.

It had taken them nearly a week after she'd been placed on suicide watch just to get her full name. Much less any other basic information about her.

Toshinori had nearly broken down and _cried_ the day that she'd finally told them that she was alone now. That there was no one left to call. No one to come for her. Shota couldn't exactly blame the man for feeling as if he could cry.

The girl's life up to this point was mapped out for them in her medical file.

She was riddled with wounds, and scars that indicated various different degrees of neglect, abuse, and _other_ things that were best left unmentioned.

As someone who worked amongst the underground, Shota was familiar with pretty much every sort of sick and depraved thing that a human was totally capable of. But even he'd been _shocked_ by what he'd found when he'd looked through her medical file in an effort to learn what he could about her.

How anyone, much less a teenage girl could suffer all of that and remain even _remotely_ sane- was totally beyond him.

And yet, she was sane. Hell she was even _healthy_.

Well, sort of anyways.

Physically, she was fine. As healthy as possible now that she was all healed up. She was still a tad bit under weight, and wasn't eating much of anything. But that wasn't alarming anyone just yet and the doctors were watching her carefully for any drastic changes in behavior.

So far she'd been consistent though.

She allowed their visits, their questions, and even suffered the occasional gift from them. She was quiet, polite, civil- she didn't lash out or act aggressively towards anyone. Not even when she was teased in an attempt to get her to smile.

Today marked the end of the two months that she'd been cooped up, and the doctors had told them weeks ago that they couldn't hold her any longer. So arrangements had been made for her to live with someone- one of the pro-heroes from U.A's staff, who could keep an eye on her and keep her safe too since her injuries had been defensive.

Which meant that there was someone in the world that would likely be trying to find her so that they could hurt her again. And that same person was responsible- even though Toshinori would argue that it was entirely _his_ fault- for the death of her friend as well.

It had also been arranged for her to go to school at U.A. as well. If only so that her guardian could keep a close eye on her even while they worked. The rest of his/her coworkers would also help keep an eye on her since everyone was _very_ aware of what had happened to her that day that she'd appeared.

As well as the aftermath of it.

So here he was, after the school day had ended, standing next to Toshinori who was a fucking bundle of nerves that he'd like nothing more than to push into the street right then.

When he'd learned that one of his co-workers had volunteered themselves to take the girl in and let her stay with them. He'd honestly expected it to be Midnight or maybe even Recovery Girl. Maybe Mic since he would expect that sort of special stupidity from him.

But to find out that it had been Toshinori that had volunteered to take her in and be her guardian...well, he wished that he could be surprised. But the thing of it was, Mic's stupidity could sometimes be contagious.

However he couldn't really think of anyone else who would have the kind of patience, understanding and compassion that Toshi did. So maybe he'd be okay with taking her in and raising her as his own?

One thing that Shota was absolutely certain of was that the man would likely come crying to him for advice whenever he fucked up. And honestly, he was both sort of dreading and just waiting for it to happen so that he could laugh at his expense.

They had been hanging out outside the hospital for a total of fifteen minutes when she finally appeared. Walking through the door with a nurse escorting her.

"Here you go!" The woman chirped jovially as she maneuvered the girl over to them. "One healthy teenage girl all ready to go!"

"Ah, thank you miss." Toshinori said politely as he reached out to take Ichigo's duffle of meager belongings from the girl's shoulder as the nurse then pulled a folded up piece of paper and handed it to him. "Hn? What's this?" Toshi asked curiously as he unfolded the paper to look at it.

"It's a list of medicines that she's currently taking. The doctor thought that he could give you a copy of them, as well as six months worth of refills just in case your too busy to pick them up from time to time. You know, with your work and all. There's her antidepressant." The nurse said as she pointed to one of the medications on the paper. "That's a sleeping med. To help with her insomnia. This one here is for her PTSD. And there's an inhaler too. Just in case she needs it."

"What on Earth would she need an inhaler for?" Toshinori asked. Blinking his blue eyes at the woman.

"Oh, I think she had some sort of asthma attack or something about a week ago. I'm not entirely sure, but I think I've heard some of the others talking about finding her passed out on the floor unable to breathe."

" _What?!_ Why wasn't I notified?" Toshi demanded in a harsher tone that he intended. The woman merely cringed and stared at him for a second before replying.

"Well, I'm not sure Mr. Might. But she seems fine now. And I'm sure that the doctors tested her a few times to double check whether they might have missed something or not when she was brought in. Either way, the doctor wanted her to have the inhaler, just to be safe."

Toshi grumbled for a moment as he refolded the paper and then thanked the woman again before waving her off and then turning to Ichigo and giving her a smile. "Hello my girl, how are you feeling today?"

"Fine."

"Happy to be free at last?" He asked in a teasing tone, hoping to get her to respond to him in something of a less listless tone.

"Ecstatic." She said as she stepped around him and quietly opened the back car door and climbed in. Pausing for a second to take her duffle from him before quietly closing the door behind her.

Toshinori stood there for a second, looking utterly lost and confused and cast a questioning glance his way. As if he had any answers for him.

"Welcome to the joy of being a father to a teenage girl." He said cheerfully as he slipped around to the driver's side of the vehicle and opened the door before then growling, "Get in the car Toshinori."


	3. Chapter 3

"So..." Toshinori said the moment that they were on their way back to the school. "I'm not sure if anyone has told you anything young Ichigo, but you've been granted a court appointed guardian to look after you until you are of age to do so yourself."

"That's nice." Ichigo said without looking at him. She was a tad bit occupied by attempting to memorize their current surroundings so that she could leave at some point and not get lost. "Who's the sucker?" She asked after a moment or so.

Toshi gave her his best million-watt-smile and waited for her to turn her head to look at him. It took her nearly ten minutes to finally do so, and Shota was desperately trying not to laugh at his friend's expression up till then.

Especially when the blond did his best puppy eyed expression at the back of her head.

"Ah, so _you're_ the sucker."

"I am not a sucker." Toshinori grumbled at her in a good natured manner.

"Do you even know how to take care of a kid?"

Shota actually snorted aloud at that question. He'd caught the man attempting to teach some of their student's how to change diapers on some dolls as part of a school assignment once.

That poor doll had died a horrible and degrading death.

After that Toshinori had been _banned_ from being in that class ever again. Much less teaching it. He'd also been advised to stay far, far away from any honest to god infants during his hero work as All Might.

"Of course I know how to take care of a kid-" Shota nearly had to pull the car over, he was laughing so hard by this point. Toshi shot him a perturbed look, that did nothing at all to make him stop laughing and quickly tacked on, "I'm a school teacher and a Pro-hero. Taking care of children is a basic that is pretty much taught to us first thing."

"That doesn't sound ominous at all." She muttered more to herself than either of them as she turned back to the window and started to ignore them again for the rest of the trip.

* * *

Once the car was parked in the school garage. Shota decided to walk with Toshi and his problem child back to the dorm where the rest of the problem children were undoubtedly waiting to ambush them.

After all, it wasn't as if Toshinori had been very subtle about the fact that he was taking the girl in. And despite how much they both may occasionally bitch about their students _not_ paying attention.

It would have been incredibly difficult even for the most unobservant of kids not to notice Toshi's hulking seven foot two form zipping around in his All Might outfit trying to get everything ready before the girl's release from the hospital.

The man had practically done everything _but_ attach a neon sign to himself that would have read, _I'm someone's dad now and damned proud of it!_

After all, Toshinori had grown up alone himself. So he knew how difficult it was for someone in Ichigo's position to find a good home. Especially at her age. Even he knew that most foster kids weren't adopted once they were in their teens. It took a special kind of person to open up their homes and their hearts to someone old enough to sass them.

Which Shota suspected was just _one_ of the main reasons why he had volunteered himself to be her guardian. The other main driving force behind Toshi's current madness was a combination of his Hero/savior complex and his guilt over her friend dying.

They had been walking for several minutes in total silence when Toshinori finally chimed in. "I hope that you don't mind, my dear girl, but when preparing your room I wasn't sure if you would want one across the hall from me. Or if you would like one attached to my own living space-"

"Which one is quieter?" Ichigo asked as she reached up to tuck a strand of her hair behind one of her ears.

Toshi opened his mouth to tell her that both were pretty quiet, but Shota interrupted him. "Neither one." Toshi shot him a scowl as he shrugged and merely explained, "Either way you look at it, your going to have unwelcome and nosy neighbors barging in on you all the time. I'd run while I had the chance if I were you."

Ichigo's lips twitched a little bit. A sign that she was amused by his words as she muttered.

"I think my nosy neighbors better watch themselves. I know karate and I'm not afraid to use it."

_"Really?"_ He and Toshinori asked in unison. Their tones colored by their piqued curiosity about her aforementioned skills.

"Yeah. I've taken karate since I was seven."

"What belt did you earn last?" Shota asked, suddenly worried about what she might be able to do to the other kids if they scared or startled her before she was used to being around them.

"A black one."

_Crap._ Shota thought to himself before quickly saying, "Please don't violently maim or kill anyone."

"I make no promises." She deadpanned.

Shota relaxed a little bit knowing what that deadpan tone of hers meant while Toshi let out a hysterical sounding giggle that was creepy as hell. And caused him to reach out and shove him in an effort to get him to _stop_ giggling like that.

It seriously freaked him out whenever the blond giggled like that. He sounded like an evil doll or something.

Finally the dorm was within sight and the two men could see some of their students hanging out, waiting for them. The second that the kids saw them, the few outside started jumping up and down and calling out to them.

Both men exchanged a glance with each other and then sighed before shifting their attention back to Ichigo for a moment. The girl didn't seem to be paying any attention to the fact that their students were waiting- not exactly patiently either- to finally meet her.

In fact she seemed to have zoned out completely for the moment.

So much so that she was slightly startled when Toshinori reached out and took one of her sleeves between his fingertips and gently tugged on it to get her attention.

She jerked a little bit before turning her head to look at him and saw him motion to the dorm ahead of them. Or rather she saw him motion to the _kids_ jumping around like little monkeys.

"Who are they?" She asked. Feeling slightly relieved of some of her anxiousness by the fact that she wasn't the only teenager that was present here.

As much as she missed being around people, she wasn't sure that she was up to the task of being around nothing but adults twenty four/seven. Especially if she needed someone her own age to talk to.

There were simply some things that a girl couldn't say to a grown man without eliciting panic, horror, dread, tears or even fainting.

She'd learned that lesson from her dad when she'd first started her period, and had to ask him for help getting 'stuff' to take care of the issue. He'd fainted on her. And essentially got himself labeled as _useless_. So she had taken his wallet while he'd been unconscious and left to get her stuff herself.

"They're some of our students," Shota said as he caught sight of Izuku and Bakugo slipping away from the rest of the kids to make their way over to them. "The two coming this way are Izuku Midoriya, and Katsuki Bakugo." Shota said as the boys drew closer.

Ichigo frowned but didn't say anything else until the boys finally reached them.

"Evening Aizawa-sensei. Yagi-sensei." Bakugo drawled, as he took a moment to look Ichigo over before finally commenting. "You look a bit underfed. And your hair is longer and shaggier, but I guess ya look alright."

Izuku shot him a disapproving glare and then elbowed him out of the way so that he could introduce himself to her.

"Forgive Ka-chan. He has all the manners and unrepentant social gracelessness of a _feral_ cat that just got caught in a downpour." Izuku said as he seized her small hand in his and shook it while introducing himself. "I'm Izuku, by the way. And your name is Ichigo? Right?"

"Uh...yeah."

He smiled at her and then quickly started to tug her along as he started to walk away from them. Leaving Katsuki to quickly take possession of the duffle bag in Toshinori's hands before waving the men off with a- "Don't worry. We'll have her in her room at a reasonable hour." as he walked off.

Leaving Shota standing there grinning to himself as he pulled out his cell and quickly took a picture of Toshi's comically disbelieving expression. _This will be my new wallpaper._


	4. Chapter 4

Contrary to popular- if a tad bit _naive_ \- belief, Izuku and Katsuki hadn't been idle these past two months. Quite the contrary, the incident the day of Ichigo's appearance had altered their perception of the world a great deal.

Ichigo's presence had lit a fire within them that sometimes seemed almost as if it were burning a little bit out of control. They pushed themselves harder. They sparred even after their school day was done.

They worked themselves so damned hard sometimes that they _collapsed_ from it. It was a wonder they hadn't killed themselves with their extra self appointed workloads.

On top of that, when they weren't doing those things, they were studying up on specific behaviors. Depression, mental illness, PTSD- you name it; they've both been delving into it in an effort to better understand how to help Ichigo once they saw her again.

Izuku was being driven to shelter and protect someone seemingly much more fragile, _mentally_ , than himself. Whereas Katsuki was being driven to be more understanding and compassionate. Which wasn't exactly something that he'd lacked to begin with.

Honestly he had both qualities in spades, he just sort of... _sucked_ at using them.

Katsuki had honestly been surprised that he'd moved to hold her hand that day. Usually he didn't display such acts of random kindness at all. They tended to make him feeling more...exposed than he was used to. And that was an uncomfortable feeling for him.

Still, his actions that day had changed him. It wasn't such a drastic change that everyone noticed it. But some people had noticed that he and Deku had both grown quieter of late. They were always thinking about something that they had no wish to share with anyone.

They spent more time together now than they ever had as kids. But then, they'd both experienced something _traumatic_ to a degree.

Deku, because he had a fucking bleeding heart. And he...well, because he'd never seen such utter _devastation_ in someone before- not even when All Might had fought All for One- that they would literally rather just lay down and die than live.

He _never_ wanted to see such devastation again. Ever.

Walking at a relaxed pace on the other side of Ichigo while he carried her duffle bag, he listened to Deku prattle on and on about their school, classmates, their teachers and a few other things that the girl seemed to have very little- or absolutely _no_ interest in.

Until he finally decided to spare her anymore of Deku's nonsense and chimed in, "Hey princess," It was odd how slowly she turned her head to look at him. But from the scowl on her pretty face, being called _'princess'_ wasn't her favorite name to be called. He merely grinned and made a mental note to call her that more since she seemed to dislike it so much, "Hope ya don't mind but we set up a little party for you to welcome you to U.A."

Deku's expression was thoughtful for a moment as he quickly jumped on the 'party' band wagon. "Yeah that's right. We and our classmates all wanted to welcome you, but we also know that you might not feel up to socializing right now. So we figured that if you would rather, we could all just pile into the common room and watch movies. Ka-chan won the coin toss though so it's a bunch of horror movies-"

"The bloodier the better." Katsuki said cheerfully, knowing that he'd just made Deku shiver with dread at the mere prospect.

"Or we could watch Mina's anime collection if you'd rather watch something a little bit less nightmare inducing." Deku suggested.

"Horror movies are fine," She finally said after a few seconds of internal debate. "I'm not really a huge fan of anime." Both boys looked at her strangely as she quickly explained, "There are too many magical girl anime's that are just ridiculous."

Izuku let out a strangled sounding laugh while Katsuki chuckled and shook his head as he thought. _Mina is going to hate her. And then she's going to try and covert her._

Slipping an arm around her shoulders, Katsuki noticed the way that she tensed up a little bit before forcing herself to relax as he said, "Mina will try to convert you. To her, magical girl anime's are like religion. She has to have a cult of followers everywhere to help spread the word."

"I haven't dealt with a cult lately-" Ichigo said, sounding vaguely intrigued for a moment before something seemed to occur to her and her expression went blank. "Oh, no...wait. I did. I forgot about _that_ incident."

Katsuki tilted his head a little bit and gave her a slant eyed look as he asked, "Something you wanna share?"

"No."

He made a humming sound and just exchanged a glance with Izuku as they moved up the steps to the dorm where they were greeted by some of the others.

* * *

Introducing someone as... _troubled_ as Ichigo seemed to be once she was surrounded by their classmates turned out to be a tad bit more problematic that the boys had both expected and anticipated for it to be.

Oh sure, they knew that it wasn't the girl's fault. They may not have known a whole lot about what anyone had discovered about her past, but they knew that a lot of it had to have been bad. Really, _really_ bad for All Might to have needed to step in and more or less become her dad until she was eighteen.

But it was getting downright ridiculous just trying to keep her calm and receptive to everyone while trying _not_ to lose their tempers at everyone else's idiocy.

Katsuki alone had already hit a few people in the back of their heads. And also tried to set Mineta on fire _twice_ for attempting to do something questionable to Ichigo's ass when her back was turned.

Which was something that bothered the fiery tempered blond immensely more than he'd thought it would. But then Mineta was a sleaze. And he really needed to learn to _stop_ perving on girls in such a creepy way.

And though there had been no actual harm done to the midget sized purple haired teen, Ka-chan had had to frantically explain upon being caught red handed by the girl that sometimes setting someone on fire was the _only_ way to deal with their dumbass classmates.

He really was a nice guy at heart. Truly. So she had absolutely nothing to fear from him.

Besides, if he so much as looked at her weird her guardian and Deku would _both_ cheerfully murder him.

Of course he had no way of knowing if telling her that would freak her out even more or not. She just sort of thinned her lips together a little bit and nodded her head before letting Deku lead her away from him while shooting him a displeased scowl.

He led her over to the table where all the food was laid out and handed her a plate so that she could grab something to eat while there was still something there since some of the others had already been getting into it and some of the snacks had had to be replaced four times already.

Leaving Katsuki to facepalm and mentally call himself an idiot as he dropped into a seat with a morose sigh and simply contented himself for the moment to watch Deku maneuver Ichigo around the food and their classmates as if he'd done it his whole life.

He envied how easy the other teen made things look.

And while Ichigo still didn't seem like she was up to being very social for the moment. He couldn't help but think that she liked the little bit of peace that Deku's presence offered.

Especially since he could shoo the others off without resorting to any form of violence. Unlike him.

Even so, he was pleasantly surprised when she broke away from Deku and walked up to him with two plates instead of one and held one of them out to him.

"What's this?"

"It's food." She said as she waited for him to reach out and take it from her. "Izuku said that you haven't eaten anything yet today."

He didn't say anything for a second as he scanned the contents of the plate that she was holding out to him. Now, he wasn't a picky eater. He never had been. But he couldn't help but think that maybe she had gone a _little_ bit overboard with the food that she'd piled onto the plate.

How on earth did she expect him to eat five slices of pizza, and three burgers with everything on them, _with_ sides, and not have his stomach explode?

"Uh...thanks." He said as he finally reached out and took the plate from her and then watched her drop down onto the floor just an inch or so from his legs and make herself comfortable while Todoroki and a few others finally put a movie in and started it.

Leaving everyone else with little choice but to grab a chair and shut the hell up so that they could watch it.

* * *

Ichigo didn't want to say that she was relieved once everyone's attention was taken off of her by the movie. But she'd be lying if she didn't.

The moment that she was sure everyone was engrossed in the movie playing on the TV, she felt herself slowly start to unwind a bit. She busied herself with attempting to eat something even though she didn't feel very hungry because of the nervousness she was feeling.

Outside of her old schoolmates, her friends, and family- she wasn't used to so many strange people being around. They made her long for someplace peaceful and quiet. They're laughter and comradery made her heart ache for those that she lost.

Eventually, after a few honest to god bites of food- she pushed her plate away, feeling the little bit that she'd managed to choke down settle in her stomach like lead that made her feel slightly nauseous.

Sighing she absently rubbed her stomach and figured that she'd sit here and watch a movie or two with everyone and then call it a night.

Hoping that maybe for a little while she could forget everything.

Forget her losses and senseless tragedies. Forget the fact that she may never see her home or her family and friends again. And forget every uncertainty that lay spread out before her in this strange place.


	5. Chapter 5

They'd been watching movies for hours now when he'd finally realized that Ichigo was out. She'd been quiet since the first movie had started. But the fact that he'd missed her finally falling asleep, propped up against his chair with her head resting awkwardly on his leg, bugged him a little bit.

Especially when he glanced at the clock and took note of the time. It was nearing ten thirty in the evening and he had promised All Might that he and Deku would have her in her room at a reasonable hour.

He supposed that since she'd fallen asleep on him that now was as good as any other time. It's not like anybody would mind anyways. The few people left over in the common room- aside from the one's asleep on the floor or who had already gone to their rooms for the evening- were all so engrossed in the latest movie that they probably wouldn't even notice the fact that she was gone.

Taking a minute to catch Deku's eyes by waving his hand at him. The other teen looked at him wide eyed and mouthed, _'What's wrong?'_ because he was probably thinking that the princess was crying or something. Only to have Katsuki answer him by pointing down at Ichigo and see his face soften bit at seeing her asleep.

He had to wait for the damned nerd to get up and move over to the chair he was sitting in to carefully remove the girl's head from his leg- just so that he could get up. They did a quick round of rock-paper-scissors to see who would take her to her room. And who would be cleaning up the small mess that she'd made with her uneaten food.

He won the round to see who would carry her to her room. Whereas Deku was to clean up the mess on the floor.

_Woo-hoo!_ He thought as he moved to bend down so that he could collect the girl in his arms while the other boy picked up her plate of barely eaten food and looked at it with a slight frown.

"She barely ate anything at all."

"She was probably too nervous to eat." Katsuki said as he scooped her up in his arms and took a moment to arrange her body so that she would be a bit more comfortable. He was already sure that she was going to have a really bad kink in her neck in the morning from falling asleep as she had. There was no point in him making it worse.

Once he had her exactly as he thought she'd be more comfortable, he told Deku goodnight and then started walking.

He almost had no time at all to focus on how light she felt in his arms for someone her age, height, and build. Much less how it felt to have her head resting on his shoulder or anything else. It only took him a few minutes to reach All Might's door and use his foot to tap on it so that he could get the man's attention.

A second later the blond opened his door and looked at him for a second before moving back to allow him inside.

"She fell asleep huh?"

"Yeah," Katsuki said in a low tone. "She konked out during one of the movies." He said as All Might led him through his personal living space so that he could reach her bedroom. Once there, the man opened the door to the room and then stepped inside out of the way so that he could carry her in and put her on the bed.

"Did she at least have fun?"

"I think so." Katsuki said as he moved to slip her shoes off of her feet. "Do you have any idea how she likes to sleep? I mean, do you know if she sleeps dressed, semi dressed-"

"Uh..."

"With or without pants, Sensei?" Katsuki clarified for the confused man, causing him to sputter and turn red before choking out in a strangled tone.

"I-I haven't g-got a c-clue."

"Then get out of the so that I can do this." Katsuki muttered as he waved the embarrassed man out of the room before then turning back to Ichigo and sighing as he leaned over her and gently shook her shoulder until she stirred.

"Hey, princess." She groaned and turned her head towards his voice, but didn't open her eyes. "Do you usually feel more comfortable sleeping with or without pants on?" He asked in a whisper tone.

She cracked an eye open to look at him for a second before slowly pushing herself up a little bit and grabbing the waist of her pants and quickly stripping them off while he stood there in shocked disbelief.

She hadn't really seemed to notice or _care_ that he'd still been standing there. And he didn't move until her pants were lying on the floor at his feet and she was curled up on the bed with her arms around one of her pillows. Sound asleep again.

He made a funny little sound in the back of his throat and then made fast work of flipping the covers up over her and collecting her pants from the floor and folding them so that he could lay them on her dresser before finally leaving. Deciding not to bother telling All Might that she slept without pants.

Such knowledge was bad for a man's heart. Especially a man like All Might.

Besides, knowing she slept pantless and keeping it to himself just seemed like the more... _gentlemanly_ thing to do at the moment. Shutting the bedroom door softly behind him, he called out a soft goodnight to his sensei and then quickly ran off before the man could ask him anything else.

* * *

The next morning was the start of a long weekend thanks entirely to a holiday falling on a certain day, and thus cutting the school week in half by five days. Which was just perfect as far as Toshinori was concerned.

It meant that he would have a little bit of time to get to actually know/bond with Ichigo and get her settled in before her first day at U.A. And because he wanted to get to know her and stuff- he already had a whole day planned out.

First, he'd take her shopping for some more clothing since she didn't really have very much to begin with. And a few other things that she would probably need. Both in and out of school.

Then once that was done, he'd take her by a craft shop and see about getting her some nice sketch books, pencils and pens, since he'd noticed on one of his visits to see her while she'd been in the hospital that she seemed to like drawing.

She was very good at it too.

He'd noted on a number of occasions that when she didn't want to talk to anyone then she'd simply doodle or draw something. Sometimes it was flowers, sometimes it was a bird, and sometimes she drew people.

_Very_ realistic people.

Her favorites seemed to be a small, waif-like dark haired beauty of a girl with wide violet eyes. A couple of kids- both also girls. One with shoulder length dark hair and the other a sweet looking young lady with short light brown hair. And the last couple were a set of three teens.

Another girl, this one with auburn hair and a kind smile, a muscular guy with long-ish and shaggy wavy hair and dark eyes. He seemed to have a mixed ethnicity that she managed to capture very well on paper. He had a very striking look to him.

And then there was a young man with glasses. She seemed to like drawing him together with the auburn haired girl.

Just like she liked drawing the other guy with the dark haired little girl and some animals. Like birds, or rabbits, and sometimes even some fluffy little kittens.

Who knew, maybe she had more hobbies than just drawing and might appreciate his efforts to encourage her to do it more.

After that he intended to take her by a music store- especially since he'd researched and had it on _very_ good authority- that many teens liked having music to listen to whenever they worked on school work or something. He also knew that they also liked to use it to drown out loud sounds such as yelling and shouting.

And while he was hoping that he never yelled at her for anything. He knew that he probably would at one point or another. Not out of anger, but frustration.

He was only human after all and despite his nearly endless well of patience sometimes even he shouted and yelled.

So giving her something that might help her to avoid a panic attack because of any yelling or shouting that he might do, was paramount in his mind. After all, music and other artsy things could be soothing to teenagers.

Especially when they'd suffered something traumatizing like Ichigo had.

After that he planned to see if there was anything else that she would like to do and then he'd feed her, maybe do a little bit of patrolling to show her how his job worked. And then he'd bring her back to the school for dinner and a nice quiet evening of unpacking her stuff and letting her set everything up however she liked.

But first- he needed to wake her up and give her breakfast and her medicines.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sad subjects in this chap.

Breakfast wasn't a big affair. Despite how nervous Toshinori felt after cooking a nice meal for himself and Ichigo. He hadn't been sure what she would like for their first meal as a guardian and charge. All he'd known was that he wanted her to _like_ what he had made.

So naturally he'd gone a little bit overboard.

He'd made some rice omelet's with a side of sausage and bacon, some miso soup, some french toast, stir fried veggies, and fruit slices that he had carefully made into bunnies.

And because he knew that she wasn't eating a lot lately, he had made the portions extra _big_. So much so that they almost literally fell off of the dishes that he'd used to place them on the table.

And for them to drink, he'd made sure to have some different stuff, just in case she wasn't exactly a juice or milk kind of girl.

So, here he was waiting on her to finish getting cleaned up- because she had decided that she wanted a shower before she did anything at all today. Which had left him with some free time before she joined him to sit, and be as nervous as he damn well liked.

He was fidgety enough as it was on a normal day. And as if already was, he was nearing his snapping point. So he was terribly relived when she finally came walking out of her bedroom fully dressed, with a wet towel draped around her neck to keep her hair from getting her shirt wet, and sat down across from him.

"Morning."

"Ah, good morning Ichigo. How did you sleep?" He asked as he relaxed slightly while she removed the towel from around her neck and tried to dry it some more.

"Like I haven't slept in a month." She said as she tugged the towel off of her head and took a moment to finger comb the messy, wild, blue-black locks down into a somewhat _less_ messy style.

"Did you not sleep well while at the hospital?" He asked curiously as he watched her take a few strands of her hair between her fingers and frown at them as if she hadn't expected them to be so long.

"I was in a hospital. I don't know anyone that would sleep well without the aid of medicine. And without being at least a little bit _paranoid_ that someone was going to sneak into their room and steal their blood for dubious reasons."

He blinked at her and tilted his head to the side inquisitively as she then said, "It's a legitimate concern back home."

"P-People steal blood for dubious reasons?" He almost squeaked as he asked the question.

"Sure. There's power in blood, ya know?" She said as she finally stopped frowning at her hair and let her hand drop back to her lap.

He wasn't really sure what she meant by that last sentence, so he just smiled and nodded his head while making a mental note to maybe ask Recovery Girl or someone else if such a thing was true.

The 'stealing blood' thing, anyways.

He felt like he suddenly _really_ should know if people were stealing blood somewhere in the world. He also felt as if he should avoid the hospital's in that place, like the plague.

Ichigo stared at him for a heartbeat or so before then looking at the table between them at the various piles of food and then looked back to him after a moment. "That's a lot." She said as she stared him down.

"Ah, yes. I wasn't sure what it is that you would like so-"

"I'm not a picky eater. But I do like curry, and tempura dishes. And matcha green tea made with some sugar and milk. Does that help?"

"Yes, it does. Thank you." Toshinori said with a grin before then waving a hand at her to indicate that she should grab what she wanted to eat and then sat back and watched her fix herself some french toast with some fruit and bacon. And then grabbed her glass and checked out the different drink options before finally settling on some orange juice. "Go ahead and eat, my girl. You have medicine to take once your done."

Her eyes flickered to him for a second, her expression unreadable. Though he got the distinct impression that she was displeased about him reminding her that she had to take her medicines as she tucked into her meal.

They both ate in relative silence for a few minutes before he finally decided to tell her what he had planned for them to do. "So, I was thinking that we might spend the day shopping, and getting some things that you will need while your here. You know, clothing, shoes, formal attire for when there is a social function that requires myself or your classmates-"

"I can't just skip those?"

"No." He said with a small frown before then explaining. "Our school is well known for being popular due to how many Pro-Heroes we train and such. Sometimes going to social gatherings and such are simply part of the deal. I'm fairly certain that you won't mind it much if someone decides to hire you as a bodyguard." Before then tacking on. "It also counts as part of your school grade for the year."

She didn't exactly look that thrilled at the mere idea of attending a nice party. Probably because she would be expected to wear a nice dress and heels.

Even he had the common sense to know that some of the dresses and heels that some girls wore nowadays were simply ridiculous. It was a wonder that there weren't any 'formal dress/heel' _deaths_ being reported on in the media.

Especially since many women and young ladies did _die_ just to make themselves beautiful.

"How about we take a few minutes to look at some stuff, just in case. And then we'll leave." He said, deciding that if she didn't want to be one of those people who died to be beautiful- then he'd write her a fucking note excusing her from having to dress up.

It might irk the hell out of Shota, but he'd be perfectly fine with it. Even if she got a bad grade for it later on.

"I can live with that." Ichigo said after a second or so of thought. "What else did you want to do?"

"Well, since you have some talent in drawing I thought that I would take you by the craft shop too. Maybe get you some sketch books, pencils, pens-" He said when she interrupted him.

"Actually...if it's okay, I had something else in mind as far as hobbies go."

He sat up a little bit straighter in his seat. "Oh? Like what?"

"I'm good with my hands. Not just as far as drawing goes. I like to make things. Usually small things, but on occasion I do tend to deviate from the usual stuff so that I can make holiday stuff."

"Like what? Give me some idea's."

"I paint. Embroider stuff. Design and make jewelry. I sometimes make scarves, and stuffed animals..." She paused as a pained look flickered across her face for a moment. "M-My mom taught me how to make scarves and stuffed animals before she died. And I took up the other stuff because both of my baby sisters pitched a fit once because they saw some really nice stuff in a Boutique window when they were four. So I took up making jewelry and embroidery so that I could make special gifts for them. For things like Valentines day, their birthday, and Christmas."

Toshinori stayed quiet as she seemed to struggle with herself not to give in to tears before she finally managed to center herself enough to look up at him with a small, fake smile. "They really liked it when I made them things. Dad even asked me to make him a couple of things too. And once he got them, he'd take them to work at the clinic and the hospital to show them off to everyone."

"It got so crazy after a little while because some of the parents and families of sick kids in the cancer and burn wards would ask for toys. Or pieces of embroidered clothing- like a princess dress, or even sometimes little handmade baby blankets for sick newborns and preemies. Dad was always so... _proud_ every time I finished making what the parents and families had asked for. He would take pictures of the kids playing with their toys or wearing their clothing, or wrapped up in their little blankets and show them to me once he got home."

He stared at her for a moment in silence, feeling as if he'd been punched in the gut. Honestly, it was hard to breathe right then as he imagined a younger version of her working diligently on the items that she'd mentioned.

"I bet that the children and their families greatly appreciated all that you did for them, however small."

"Maybe." Ichigo said as she lifted her hands to scrub at her face before then saying. "I'm not really hungry anymore..."

"Of course." He said, understanding how the gloomy turn in conversation might have turned her stomach a little bit. No matter, she'd still eaten something. And he could always put the rest of her food back in the fridge for her to eat later.

After he put her leftovers away, he handed her her medicines and watched her take them. Just to be on the safe side. And then began to clean off the table so that they could go and get everything over with.


	7. Chapter 7

Shopping with a teenage girl like Ichigo while trying to be incognito _was_ an experience for Toshinori. And it was definitely an experience that he wasn't going to be forgetting anytime soon.

He'd been made as All Might barely ten minutes after stepping into the local shopping mall. Which had caused...some _concerns_ for a number of reasons.

One of which was the fact that someone may have had pictures of him walking around with Ichigo.

He hadn't wanted to expose her to the media until he had a stronger bond with her as her Guardian. That and he hadn't wanted her to be hounded by any reporters and the like until she was a little bit more emotionally stable.

He didn't want to see her on the TV or read something that could distress her and maybe send her over the edge. So naturally when some of his adoring fans had see him in his apparently not-quite-as-clever-as-he'd-hoped disguise and run at them- he'd freaked out and panicked a little bit.

So he'd nearly missed Ichigo moving to stand between him and his fans like a frigging human shield, and staring them down like she'd like nothing more than to _put_ them down. _Violently_.

Honestly he didn't know what to make of the look on her face. But he was pretty sure that her eyes weren't supposed to glow as if she were using a quirk on them. But he hesitated to call her out on the possibility that she was using a quirk on the people because she may not have very good control over it, and he didn't want to embarrass her.

There was a brief moment where his fans had skidded to a stop barely a few feet away. All of them with incredulous looks on their faces before they then quickly scattering in every direction. With the exception of a couple of little kids who just wanted to meet their hero. And stood there looking up at her with the strangest most amazed little expressions on their faces.

They held up their little All Might themed coloring books and some crayons. Which Ichigo took from them and handed over to him so that he could sign them while the kids grilled her.

"Are you a pro-hero too?"

"No."

"But you made those people run off! You must be a hero too!"

"No, I'm not."

"B-But all Might is with you!" One kid nearly shouted as he pointed at her. "If you aren't a pro-hero, then are you in trouble? Is All Might trying to save you?!"

Ichigo didn't really seem to know how to reply to such a question from such a young and impressionable kid. So she wisely kept her mouth shut.

Meanwhile, Toshinori took his sweet time signing the kids coloring books so that he could shamelessly stand there and observe how she interacted with the kids while they fawned over her a bit and told her that there wasn't any need to be afraid, All Might would save her as he finished up and then bent down a little bit so that he could hand the books and crayon's back to the kids.

They smiled at him and quickly stole little hugs from Ichigo while she stood there scowling a bit before finally running off back to their parents to tell them that they'd gotten an autograph from All Might, and hugs from the nice girl with him.

The moment that they were gone, Toshinori straightened back up to his full height and said, "You're very good with children."

"I had twin baby sisters that were four years younger than me. Being good with kids was a must if they were going to _survive_ my moody teen years."

He gave her an amused smile. Already knowing from their previous talk about her siblings that she had been totally crazy about them. And had adored them.

"Sure. That must be it." He murmured as he slipped his hands into his jeans pockets and started walking. Chortling a little bit when she shouted after him,

"Hey! Do not doubt me! I would drop kick a toddler!" Which only seemed to make him laugh that much harder until he heard her growl at him in warning before she stomped after him.

A little while later Toshinori found himself trailing after her since she was the one who needed stuff. He figured that he'd let her check out as many shops as she deemed necessary for what she needed.

Now the thing about this was that he'd told her to get some more clothing. Which she had. However the fact that she didn't care all that much for anything that almost any other girl in the world might like- was driving him _nuts_!

What kind of teenage girl didn't like florals, animal print, or cute patterns? What sort of girl avoided the colors pink, and purple? And despite the fact that he was the one paying for everything, and had more than a few hundred _millions_ at his disposal; shopped clearance items?!

As it was she had only managed to find herself a few things here and there.

Some PJ sets to sleep in, some shirts, and a couple of pairs of jeans and some socks. And that was it. She seemed to be steering clear of specific items- like underwear and bras- even though she needed them.

Which was a bit understandable considering that he was there with her.

Maybe she simply felt a bit uncomfortable with the idea of getting such things with him around? Should he make himself scarce and meander around so that she could get- He was only vaguely startled by the sudden appearance of some sports bras and two packets of underwear in the cart that he was manning before she disappeared again.

So maybe he had been wrong about thinking that she might be uncomfortable about getting such things with him around? Or maybe his head was just one step closer to exploding?

Yeah, that sounded about right. He grumbled to himself as he pushed the cart and began to try and find her again.

* * *

Two and a half hours!

It took her just two and a half hours to systematically go through every single clothing shop and store in the mall. After which, she'd sat down somewhere and had refused to move an inch since.

Which left Toshinori in an peculiar predicament.

She still didn't have even half of what he'd expected to be hauling around. And since she didn't want to move any, he decided to that it might be a good idea to let her stay put. Especially since he wasn't planning to be gone for more than a few minutes.

"Ichigo-"

"Hn?" She said in a distracted tone as she watched the animals in the pet store window.

"Will you stay here while I do something?"

"Sure."

"Promise me."

"I promise." She said without bothering to look at him.

She was really interested in those animals, so unless they damned things got sold by the store owner- he very much doubted that she would _go_ anywhere anytime soon. However he couldn't help but wonder if she was messing with him as he dug out wallet and an old cell phone that he'd kept for someone to use in case of emergencies.

He pulled out some money, just in case she got hungry, and took her hand and laid both it and the cell in her hand- drawing her attention away from the animals for a moment. "What the-"

"Some money for food in case you get hungry before I come back. And the phone is so that you can let me know where you are if you decide to wander off. That way I don't worry."

She frowned but didn't say anything as she took her hand back and went back to watching the animals. Leaving him to his own vices for the time being.


	8. Chapter 8

Toshinori was more than a little bit impressed by the fact that Ichigo hadn't moved so much as an inch while he was zipping from store to store, getting some cute stuff for her to wear, since she seemed to be avoiding such things on her own.

In fact he was starting to get a mite concerned about whether or not she was even breathing. She was just...so utterly still. Almost like a living statue. It was disconcerting to say the least.

Seeing a child- even a teenager- so still was _eerie_. Especially since children/teens always seemed to be moving around for one reason or another.

Still, he'd had an eventful dash around the mall and had gotten everything nice that he'd been intending to get for her since she seemed to be avoiding specific things.

He'd gotten her sweaters, t-shirts, buttons downs, some dresses, extra pants, socks, a couple of winter jackets- even some shoes. He made sure to get a couple of pairs of flats, slip on's, and a few pairs of sneakers, small heels and heeled boots too. Since he knew that heeled boots were all the rage now, fashion-wise.

He got every _nice_ thing that he could possibly think of. Everything that would have been remotely _flattering_ to her appearance.

After all, he couldn't have his charge running around looking like a bargain bin rag-a-muffin.

People would begin to talk about how he wasn't taking very _good_ care of her. And that would be bad for a great number of reasons. Some of which had little to do with his pro-hero job.

And had far more to do with his pride as her guardian.

Walking up behind her, he slipped everything that he'd bought for her in with everything else in the cart that he was toting around. Hoping that he'd be able to hide his purchases from her until they were back at the school and he could surprise her with them.

"Back already?" Ichigo asked as she finally turned her head to look at him. "I guess that you finished up what you wanted to do."

"Yes." He said with a small smile. She made a humming sound and then turned back to the animals in the pet store window and quietly- if perhaps a little bit sullenly- told them goodbye and then got up off of the floor and dusted her pants off.

"Okay, where to now?"

"The music store." He said with a wide grin. She blinked at him for a second, and then cocked her head a little bit to the left but otherwise didn't react to his words at all. Which caused his grin to fall a little as he groused, "Do you ever feel enthusiasm for anything?"

"I do," She said with a slight nod as she moved to help him collect some of the bags that weren't already in the cart, but was waved off as he quickly intercepted her. "I just...don't really feel a lot right now because of the depression..."

"Oh."

"Or maybe it's the PTSD that the doc said that I have." She muttered to herself with a frown.

_"Oh."_ He said again, feeling like a jerk for complaining in the first place when he should have remembered that her emotional state was still not quite right. "Sorry."

_"Don't apologize."_ She suddenly growled at him in annoyance. Startling him a slightly with her tone as she went on to say, "You haven't done anything wrong. So don't ever apologize for the little things."

He looked at her oddly for a moment and silently nodded his head in understanding and then motioned for her to follow him as he started walking. Silently wondering if he would ever solve the puzzle that she presented him with.

After all, he had a lot to learn about her. Much of which was based on trust.

He still barely knew even the basics about her. Like what was her favorite color? Her favorite food- no wait- she'd mentioned that her favorite food was curry, right? But he still didn't know other things. Like when was her birthday? How old was she?

He was certain that she was in her teens, he just couldn't quite gauge _where_.

He already knew that she had a multitude of hobbies. She had had two younger siblings. Twin girls. Right? A dad who apparently worked in the medical field. She wasn't a picky eater. And she was at least a black belt in karate.

But not much else aside from those.

And then there was the even more important things that nobody seemed to know just yet.

Things like _what had happened to her?_ What had brought her to U.A. that day? Who had _hurt_ her and been responsible for the ultimate fate of her young friend?

He still found it a tad bit strange that she wasn't telling them anything about those things. But figured that maybe pushing her in her present state would be a very _bad_ idea. Especially since she didn't seem ready to talk about any of it just yet.

Sighing quietly he led her to the music shop and decided to hang back and observe her and see what she did. She didn't get much in the way of CD's or anything else. And what little bit she did get- she didn't take any real time to look at.

She just walked in, grabbed a small boom box with a CD player in it, and four CD's and then went to the counter. Toshinori sighed, feeling a little bit...frustrated that she didn't act like a normal teen would and grab everything within reaching distance- no wait! Maybe that was a toddler?

He'd have to double check his parenting books once they were back home.

He payed for her stuff and then led her to the craft store, and once again found himself attempting to observe her.

Unlike the music store, her behavior here was far, far more energetic and enthusiastic. In fact, she seemed to display far more emotion than he'd seen from her so far, here. She literally seemed to vibrate in place with _excitement_ before he told her to go on and see what she could find.

Despite the fact that he knew he just might wind up hating himself for unleashing her in the store unsupervised later.

She certainly seemed to come out of her shell a little bit, that was for sure.

He observed her as she went down various isles here and there, occasionally reaching out and taking items from the shelves and looking them over with a critical eye. Sometimes she put the stuff back and sometimes she didn't. But she didn't always put anything in the cart either.

Some stuff, she just seemed to like so much that she didn't want to part with it. At all. So she carried it everywhere she went while she was browsing.

He was so interested in watching her that he wasn't paying any real attention to what she did put into the cart. So he was a mite startled to see the stupid thing nearly overflowing with _all_ kinds of things.

Things like knitting needles, lotion bases, body butter bases, stuff to make beaded jewelry, embroidery stuff for multiple projects, clothe, needles, thread and yarn, things to make her own homemade soaps, melt and pour bases for the soaps, scented stuff, liquid dyes, candle making supplies, some DIY books, catalogs on where to buy craft stuff online and then finally- she came to a stop in the floral section of the store where she sat down on the floor- just like she had outside the pet store earlier.

And began to systematically make some floral arrangements out of whatever she could reach while he watched her in fascinated bemusement.

She must have been making little flower arrangements for the better part of an hour before he finally decided that he just might have to drag her from the place, tossed over his shoulder, kicking and screaming if he wanted to go on patrol anytime soon.

Reaching out, he rested a large hand on top of her head to draw her attention to him and smiled when she tipped her head back and blinked at him owlishly. "Do you want to get any of the flowers? You could make some arrangements if you like. I don't think anyone back at the school will mind any."

She blinked at him again and then looked around for a second with a small frown while he eyed the steadily growing pile of little arrangements that she'd already made, and then reached down and grabbed them up and carefully set them in the cart with everything else before then grabbing some vases and some different colored ribbons to be used with them and put those in the cart too.

"Okay, I'm ready if you are." He announced as she got up off of the floor and nodded her head.

"Alright. Let's go."


	9. Chapter 9

Once everything was finally purchased- Toshinori led Ichigo out of the mall and several blocks over to where one of his Hero offices was, so that he could put her things someplace safe while he was taking her around with him on patrol. And after stuffing everything in an old friend's office, he changed into his outfit and then motioned for her to follow him as he stepped back out of the building and back onto the street again.

"What are you doing now?" She asked as she followed him back out onto the street.

He gave her his trademark 'All Might' smile and then explained. "I'm taking you on a round of patrol with me. I thought that it would be good for you to see what I do for work up close instead of seeing it on the evening news at some point. Especially if things go awry like they sometimes do. I wouldn't want you to sit back at the school and worry needlessly."

She didn't say anything. Merely thinned her lips a little bit and stuffed her small hands in her pant's pockets and moved to walk beside him instead of trailing along behind him.

One of the first things that she noticed and asked him about was the attention that he always seemed to get everywhere he went. Sure he was a hulking and incredibly _noticeable_ seven foot two inch guy with the physique of a Greek god- but _why_ was he getting so much damned attention?

He'd found her question a tad bit amusing, so he'd launched into this long-winded explanation about who he was and why he got so much attention.

However his amusement quickly turned into shock, disbelief, and maybe a little bit of horror too, when she'd not known anything about him at _all_.

Apparently she'd been living under a rock or something all her life.

She didn't know his hero name. In fact she had even commented that she'd never even heard it up until her two month stint in the hospital. She also really didn't even know _why_ he was such a big deal.

Which was...weirdly _disconcerting_ to him. After all, how could she _not_ know the name of All Might? The man who was hailed by everyone in the world as the Pillar of Justice?

So he told her a little bit about his abilities.

Not much, just the basics. Super strength, super speed- she muttered something about that not being very special since every Tom, Dick, and Harry had those things nowadays too. Which had him gaping at her in disbelief again- because, _ow!_ His pride!

"I'll have you know that I worked very hard to be the Pro-hero that I am today." He said. _Irritation_. Unbidden, was bubbling up just beneath the surface of his usually calm and friendly exterior.

Had being told that he- no, his _quirk_ \- wasn't that special really bothered him that much? He wondered for a moment. Before realizing that it had.

He always tended to get a bit defensive when it came to the quirk that Nana had given to him.

"I never said that you didn't." Ichigo said with small frown as she cast a side eyed look his way. "Even I know that it would take years to be able to properly train yourself to use those abilities to the fullest without harming yourself and others."

That mollified him some, but only slightly as he mulled over her words for a moment before latching onto something and deciding to say, "Your speaking from personal experience."

The fact that he was pointing out that she was speaking of personal experience was telling to him. She turned her head a little bit and gave him a grim look as he asked her.

"What sort of abilities do you have?"

"Nothing that you need to know." She said the words slowly. Trying not to snap or be harsh about something that he was merely curious about.

After all, even she knew that the question _would_ come up inevitably. It was just bound to since her arrival in this place had got a _lot_ of people curious. And it wasn't as if none of them hadn't noticed her Hollow-fied state. Not to mention the big assed sword that she'd had on her that had later disappeared on them without any sort of explanation.

There was the Soten Kisshun too.

She would be the first to say that she hadn't been totally aware of who was close to her that day. But she _did_ know that some of the people close to her then had seen the tiny fairy-like beings that had once belonged to Orihime. Back before she'd been stripped of her abilities, and crippled in an incident that she had yet to heal from.

Orihime had given her her Soten Kisshun in a last ditch effort to save them from disappearing. Because they were alive, and deserved to continue living even if she couldn't bring them forth anymore.

It had taken Ichigo a month to manage to even manifest them. Which had been very tricky for her since she wasn't as gentle natured as Orihime was. And Kisuke had explained that her spirit energy might make some changes to them.

After all, Orihime wasn't much of a fighter. She was a healer and defender, sure. But not a fighter. Ichigo was nothing but a fighter. Her spirit energy had been tempered by past experiences to be as sharp- if not _sharper_ \- than Zangetsu.

And Zangetsu was sharp and powerful enough to cleave the Heaven's themselves into _pieces_ if she so desired.

She was so quiet that it would have been difficult not to tell that she was thinking of something. And while he still wanted answers to his question, she didn't seem very willing to give them at the moment.

Sighing because he was fairly certain that he must have upset her with his question about her abilities- he was about to apologize when she said, "The power to break apart the world and re-create it into whatever you desire is a terrifying thing. One wrong move, one wrong wish, or want, or desire could break apart the very foundation of reality and unravel it at the seams."

He stopped walking to look down at her.

A frown marring his expression as he considered her words as she then shrugged her slender shoulders and said, "Rukia always said that 'We stand in awe before that which cannot be seen.' She also said, that the unseen stood in awe before me. But...I think I'm still trying to figure out what she meant."

Toshinori blinked at her and then frowned, not quite understanding right then that she just may have answered his question while managing not to at the same time.

Not too long after that, there was some trouble and he had to run off to stop a bank robbery. Which meant that Ichigo was left alone at least a good fifty feet or so from the place being robbed. So naturally he thought that she'd be safe there. After all, it wasn't as if just anyone would be able to pick her out of the faces in the civilian crowd.

He was wrong. Dreadfully so.

He realized that when three of the robbers managed to escape the building while another two kept him busy. He had just managed to knock the other guys out and was running outside when he heard some hysterical screaming coming from the area where he'd left Ichigo, and felt his blood run cold.

Rushing over to where the civilians had gathered, he took a moment to scan everyone for injuries while also looking for his young charge, and gnashed his teeth and growled when he couldn't _see_ her anywhere.

_"Fuck."_ He snarled as he dug his cell phone out and then grabbed one of the less shaken Civilians for a moment and got what information he could out of them.

Once that was done, he let them wander off as he quickly dialed Shota's number.

The phone barely rang once before he heard the man's voice demanding to know why he was calling him.

* * *

Shota couldn't help the frustrated curse that left him when he heard that Toshi had fucked up already. Sure he'd been expecting it at some point- but to fuck up quite so soon was practically unheard of.

I mean it wasn't as if he were trying to raise another Bakugo for crying out loud.

And yet- that frustration quickly bled away to anxiousness and concern when Toshinoi told him that he'd taken the girl with him on patrol. The reasons why he had done so didn't matter at the moment.

What did was the fact that he believed that the escaping villain's had Ichigo as a hostage, however, meant _everything_ right then.

It had him dropping what he was doing at the school and quickly running out of the lounge and going down the halls. It had his heart beating so quickly that it was a wonder that it didn't explode in his chest as he ran past a couple of the kids hanging out at the dorm- damned near knocking them down as he barreled out the door. Barely managing to call out an apology to the ones he nearly knocked down as he went.

After all, Toshi was obviously going to need help finding the villains before they _hurt_ the girl. Otherwise he wouldn't have bothered to call him in the first damned place.

* * *

With the holidays right around the corner, Katsuki wasn't about to get caught without gifts for his family and friends this year. Partially because the old hag had nearly pummeled him to death last year when he'd dropped by for an impromptu visit to see his parents without any.

Because apparently _remembering_ gifts for your friends and loved ones was a very serious matter to everyone. It made them feel appreciated and stuff.

He knew this now because even Kirishima had been miffed at him for not getting him anything last year for the holidays. And he was usually a fucking annoying ray of sunshine all the time! So having him miffed at him had...been an experience.

One that he didn't really want a repeat of anytime soon. Especially since they shared a room and he'd be subjected to some more of the other boy's weirdness.

So today he'd left the school dorm to do some holiday shopping, figuring that he'd try to get a jump on things before he forgot again. So far, he'd managed to get stuff for just about everyone in his class- teachers included. And at the moment, he was trying to find something nice for Ichigo since he didn't want her to feel badly for being left out by any of the kids.

Sure he knew that Deku was going to get her something. He'd even had an idea for something small, but fetching like a fashion jewelry pearl set or something. Or maybe an item or two made of crystals.

Katsuki was going to skin him alive if he got her anything nicer than what he was planning to get her. He already had some magnolia, lily, and orange blossom scented perfume picked out for her. Which smelled really, really good to him.

So fuck what anybody else thought.

But just in case she didn't like the perfume much, he'd also gotten her a sterling silver and crystal drop pendant necklace. The pendant was wire wrapped with eye catching coils here and there, suspending the crystal carefully from them.

It had looked really neat to him. So he'd grabbed it up before someone else did.

He was currently walking down the street towards a cafe to grab something to eat when he heard a commotion and some screaming up ahead. Wondering what was going on, he switched over to a jog in an effort to reach where the screaming was coming from and damn near tripped over his own feet when he saw Ichigo staring down some assholes with what looked like gun quirks.

"What the fuck-" He muttered as he stared at her wide eyed. His mind racing between, _What the actual fuck is going on? Did she run away? Where the hell is All Might?!_ Everyone and their cousin knew that this was All Might's usual patrol area- so where was he? Did he get held up helping someone else? Or fighting?

And what was Ichigo doing with those losers? Was she trying to kill herself? He wondered in vague alarm as two of the guys suddenly fired shots at her.

Katsuki visibly bristled as they laughed, expecting her to hit the ground screaming or something. He didn't really have any time to think any more. His body moved on automatic out of worry that she may have actually been shot even if she didn't fall to the ground.

One second he was on the sidelines and the next he was decking one of the guys so hard that his head cracked the pavement when it hit it. Which suddenly had all eyes on him as he snarled, "Hey fuckers!" As he took a second to visibly check Ichigo over.

His scarlet eyes landing on the small patch of crimson staining her sleeve before flickering away again. The words, 'Hurt', and 'Flesh wound' slithering through his mind as he growled angrily.

"What the fuck do you think your doing with this girl?"

* * *

Ichigo stared at the blond boy that she'd hung out with yesterday with an mixed expression that was between relief, panic, and something akin to very strong rage. And tried to figure out if she wanted to laugh, cry, or _beat_ the ever loving hell out of someone.

At the moment, she was strongly leaning towards the last option. But that was only because she was steadily getting more and more pissed.

Oh sure, she hadn't been all that upset before when she'd been grabbed by the three idiots and toted off. But that was merely because she was used to people unceremoniously grabbing her for one reason or another. It usually led to something either really scary or insanely entertaining.

There was literally no middle ground with her friends. And though she wasn't with her friends- she had also figured that the trend would run the same even here.

So she figured, why not? She hadn't actually been kidnapped in a little while.

And if the moron's really did _try_ something then she could just take them out. Easy-peasy. Right?

Well, as it turned out, she'd been sort of wrong there. But then she had so little information on...what were they called here? _Quirks?_ That she was kind of flying blind at the moment.

How was she supposed to know that having guns growing out of a person's arm was sensitive to the touch when you grabbed it and tried to yank it off? Also, how was she supposed to know that the stupid thing worked like an honest-to-god gun? She'd never seen a quirk work before.

So when she'd yanked on the thing attached to the guy's arm, she'd not only hurt him- but pissed him _and_ his friends off.

She'd not been expecting the damned things to function like actual guns. She'd expected _bones_ to be shot out of it! At least she could see those coming at her and frigging _dodge_!

So naturally when she'd felt one of the bullets hit her arm...she'd froze up for a second to rethink her initial plan. Which was what she had been doing while the three assholes laughed. And then blondy had shown up.

And all she could think at the moment was something between, 'He's going to get himself turned into swiss cheese.' and 'I should have stayed in bed this morning.'

Blondy's hands were starting to spark the longer he stood there waiting for someone to say _what_ the hell they were doing with her. And Ichigo reacted to the opening the only way that she knew how.

She attacked. Quickly, viciously, and...despite the fact that the men were armed- she put them _all_ on their asses within the blink of an eye.

She didn't think that she'd ever seen anybody ever look quite so amazed and cheated all at once before. But blondy certainly did from the way that he was openly gaping at her.

She spent a moment breaking each of the men's ankles- just one of them, so that they'd have trouble running away from the authorities before she felt an arm suddenly snake around her waist, and quietly huffed as blondy practically picked her up and then ran off into an alley with her tucked underneath his arm like a football.


	10. Chapter 10

The moment that she was on her feet again, she found herself being forcibly wheeled around and slammed- a tad bit gentler than expected- up against the side of a red brick building looking into startlingly _angry_ scarlet eyes.

"W-What?"

"What the fuck were you doing with those losers?" Katsuki growled out as he braced a hand against the wall by her shoulder and glared at her.

Now that the annoyances were taken care of and she was safe, he was once again worried that she might have been trying to get herself killed. And if that was the case he wanted to know so that he would be sure to keep a _closer_ eye on her from now on. He'd probably have to let Deku, All Might, and maybe even Aizawa know what she'd been doing too.

Lest she manage to catch them off guard and have herself a little 'accident' that would end with her having a broken neck, being hung, or something equally or even more disturbing.

The last thing any of them needed was a kid committing suicide while either under the watch of the teachers or on the school campus. It just wouldn't end well for anyone. Not the teacher's or staff- and certainly not the students.

Everyone caught enough shit from the school and the kids being attacked twice by the league of villains earlier in the year.

"Well?" He prompted, impatient to get to the bottom of things while his list of things to do was suddenly growing exponentially by such _incredible_ leaps and bounds that it was starting to piss him off a little bit.

"Hi, Katsuki. It's a nice day out today. Don't you think?" She said in a sarcastic manner that set his teeth on edge enough to elicit a feral sounding warning growl from him as he reached out with his other hand and smacked her arm injury sharply.

She twitched and seemed to be gritting her teeth just to keep from yelling and slowly turned venomous, glittering moss green eyes to him a split second before he suddenly felt a sharp stinging _slap_ to the side of his head that made him yelp loudly.

It had happened to abruptly, that he'd not even realized that she had moved her hand until he was nearly knocked over by the blow. As it was he was sort of staggering around a little bit as he let out another feral sounding growl, and shook his head in an effort to clear of of the irritating ringing he swore that he could hear in his damned ears now.

"The fuck did you hit me for?!" He snarled at her.

"What the fuck did you smack my arm for?" She tossed his words back at him with a look of reproach on her pretty face. In any other situation he would have done one of two things.

Laughed. Or lunged at the other person with fists swinging.

The fact that he hadn't done the second option already took a bit more restraint that even he knew he had. But he'd still managed not to do it.

Deku would be so fucking proud. He mused to himself as he rubbed where she had smacked him before saying, "I hit your arm because you smarted off when I asked you a question."

"And I hit you because you hit my arm, where I was _shot_ , you little asshole." The look on her face coupled with her words actually made his lips twitch a bit in bemusement as he muttered,

"Touche princess."

"Hit me again, and I'll show you just how damned touche I can be." She warned him. He put his hands up in the universal sign of surrender and then decided to try asking her again. Somehow managing to finally recall that she was mentally fragile right now and he needed to shelve his anger.

"What were you doing with those guys?"

"I wasn't doing anything."

"Why were you with them then?" He asked curiously. "Did you run away from the school and All Might already?"

"What? _No_." He'd think she was lying if she didn't look so frigging offended at the moment. "Those morons were part of a bank robbery or something-" He raised his brows at her and cocked his head as he waited for the rest of the explanation. However she seemed to get tripped up a bit on All Might's hero name. She kept looking confused for a moment and calling him All Marky? Sparky? Giant blond guy in the onesie. He might have laughed at the weird names she was coming up with- if he wasn't such an avid All Might fan.

And she finally then muttered, "What the hell is his hero name again?"

"All Might." He replied, trying to be helpful since she couldn't seem to recall her Guardian's hero name any.

He'd have to tell Deku about this later. Especially since he was betting that the other teen would have an fit of epileptic seizures when he heard about this shit.

"Right. Why doesn't he just call himself Superman and get it over with?"

"I think the name was taken already. So- losers. Why were you with them?"

"Oh, right. All Might decided to take me out to get some extra clothing and stuff so I don't know- I'd be more comfortable or something- and then thought that it would be a good idea to go on patrol and let me see what he does for a living."

Katsuki mulled that over for a moment and internally sighed. Yup, that sounded like the man alright. He thought to himself as he made a hand motion to prompt her to keep going. "So he ran off to stop a robbery and the next thing I know one of those idiots is grabbing me and running off."

He stared at her for a moment in sheer disbelief before finally saying, "You're fucking shitting me right?"

"I am not."

"They kidnapped you?! While All Might was working?"

"They did." She said sagely as he half groaned and half whined and buried his face in his hands for a moment. Because holy fucking shit- All Might had to be totally _freaking_ out right now.

He still recalled how utterly livid the man had been during the attack on the USJ by the league of villains. And could only imagine how fucking pissed he must be right now knowing that she'd been kidnapped right from under his nose.

"Fuck me." He muttered as he finally dropped his hands away from his face and pulled his cell phone out and decided to try and shoot the man a text before he had every Pro-hero in the country scouring the city looking for her.

* * *

Toshinori was zipping _everywhere_ trying to locate Ichigo when Aizawa finally showed up. And the first thing that the man did was use his quirk and his capture tool to stop him. And by stop him, he meant rendering him powerless in the middle of a mad dash and causing him to take a bad fall.

_Face first_. Onto the pavement. Before then hog tying him to prevent him from zipping off to look for her again. Apparently he was scaring people with the way he was conducting his search.

So Aizawa deemed him too unsuitable to even attempt to continue looking for her and began to make some calls to a few other hero's in the area to ask them for help. After he got some replies from some that were willing to help- he then tried grilling Toshinori on what had happened to see if he could find out anything else.

Maybe something that Toshi had missed himself?

He had found it a little bit alarming that Toshinori had only had the girl officially in his care for a _day-_ well, not even that really. It had actually been just about four hours since the day started- and he had lost her already.

Frankly, the fact that Toshi seemed to think that the girl had been kidnapped- just proved how ill-equipped to handle being her guardian- he really was here.

I mean, _who_ the hell kidnapped someone in broad daylight? On a crowded sidewalk surrounded by a small sea of people no less?

Especially someone that had been with Toshi! That was like signing one's own death warrant in _blood_! Especially since Toshinori took both his job, and his responsibilities very, _very_ seriously. And the fact that he was already frantic to find her was very telling to Shota.

He was totally certain that if Toshi could _break_ his capture tool he'd already be tearing the city apart with his bare hands.

"Shota! Untie me now! I have to find Ichigo before she get's hurt!" The blond shouted at him as Shota felt his cell phone vibrate in his pocket and took it out hoping for an update from someone so that he could give Toshi some good news and calm him down. And visibly sagged in relief when he saw the text from Bakugo.

"Ichigo is safe," He said as he scanned the text carefully. Missing the way that Toshi went still upon hearing this and seemed to be waiting for more details. "Bakugo spotted the guys who took her and went to help. One of the villains clipped her arm with a bullet-" He didn't have to look at the man to know how displeased he looked at hearing this. "But it's a flesh wound and isn't even bleeding anymore. He says that they're less than four miles away."

"Untie me-"

"He says that he'll bring her here so just sit tight."

Toshi made an impatient sound, but sat there quietly for the better part of five minutes while Shota texted the other heroes to let them know that Ichigo had been found.


	11. Chapter 11

The moment that young Bakugo finally showed up with Ichigo in tow, Toshinori shed Shota's capture tool like a snake shed it's skin. Which startled the smaller man a bit since he hadn't realized that he could actually do that.

No matter. Shota would get over him escaping his clutches for now and would likely step up the use of his capture tool the next time he had to use it on him.

"Ichigo!" He called out as he moved to stand in front of her. She blinked up at him while he placed his large hands on her slender shoulders as young Bakugo rubbed the bridge of his nose with a finger and said in a warning tone,

"Watch where you touch her sensei." Which caused him to glance at the boy in confusion for a second before Katsuki went on to say, "I'm not an expert or anything but that flesh wound on her arm seemed to really hurt her. She's already tried to knock my head off."

Ichigo gave the boy a baleful glare but didn't bother to even say anything while Toshinori glanced between the two kids worriedly.

Toshinori knew that young Bakugo had an...very _abrasive_ personality. So at the moment he was more concerned that the boy may have done something- or even said something to set Ichigo off enough to invoke a violent response from her, if he was to trust the boy's warning at all.

"Is that true Ichigo? Did you try to take Bakugo's head off?" He asked, hoping that Katsuki was fibbing.

"He hit me." Was all the girl said sullenly as the boy visibly bristled before screeching at her.

"I didn't hit you! I smacked your arm where you got clip- _oh shit_." Young Katsuki muttered as he quickly slapped his hands to his mouth in an effort to shut himself up.

However the damage was already done. Both Toshi and Shota turned their eyes to him in a creepy manner that had a chill shooting down his spine while his idol started to pop his knuckles menacingly. The hulking man's usual 'All Might' smile took on a dangerous edge as he glared at the boy for a moment.

"Bakugo, you'll be doing drills on the Hero course until you drop for the next week." Shota said as he quickly placed himself between the blond man and the boy.

Just in case Toshinori felt the very strong urge to reach out and _smack_ the boy himself.

"Two weeks." Toshi finally chimed in, his voice coming out as an angry growl. "Two weeks of running the Hero course until he drops."

"Alright. Two weeks." Shota agreed as the hulking blond slowly moved back to stand where the girl was again. His attention going back to his young charge.

"Aside from your arm being hurt, are you alright?" He asked her. She nodded her head and grumbled something inaudible to him as he gently ruffled her long dark hair in an affectionate manner that he hoped wasn't too... _fatherly_ for her at the moment. The last thing that he wanted was for her to shut down on him because she felt that he was trying to replace her biological father.

Which he wasn't.

Toshinori had been around long enough to gain specific understanding into an abandoned, lost, and orphaned child's mind. And nothing got a kid to shut down on you faster than having them think that you were trying to replace the family that they lost.

Because no one could _ever_ replace them.

"We'll get you patched up once we're back at the school."

"I'll call Recovery Girl!" Shota called out as he grabbed Bakugo and prepared to take him and go _away_ when Toshi said,

"It's about time to start back anyways. You've already had an eventful day. There's no point in making it even more eventful by sticking around to patrol even more."

"You mean that there's no point in tempting fate even more than you already have." Ichigo said as she scowled at him.

Toshinori had the good grace to look sheepish, but still decided to head back to the school ASAP. Especially since there were reporters and such in the immediate vicinity whom had been paying a _lot_ of extra special attention to him after she'd been grabbed.

His melt down from earlier was probably on the news already. Which meant that everyone and their cousin- hero's and villains alike- was going to know that he was presently the guardian of a mentally fragile girl. _Wonderful._

Besides he needed to get her back to the school where it was safe for her and she wouldn't be hounded by anyone since it looked as if they were getting ready to move in and start asking questions any moment now.

"Come," He said as he leaned down and quickly picked her up off of the ground, eliciting a yelp and a few curses from her before she settled down and just hid her face in her hands as if she were embarrassed. "We'll go collect your things from the office and then head home." He said gently before turning his head to Shota and motioning for he and Bakugo to come along too.

Shota and Bakugo both sighed, knowing what was going to happen and resigned themselves to travel by jumping. No doubt Ichigo was going to scream bloody murder on them, but whatever.

As long as Toshinori didn't drop them then they'd deal.

"Let's go." Shota said as he literally had to climb up onto Toshi's back while Bakugo got grabbed up in the other man's arm just like Ichigo had been.

"Don't push me out of his arm while he's air born." Katsuki said as he sent a small glare the girl's way.

As if telling her not to do something would make her _not_ do it.

Shota snorted knowing that if she was still miffed about Bakugo smacking her injured arm- then the boy's trip back to the school was going to be both very interesting and probably very, very scary too.

"I make no promises." Ichigo deadpanned in annoyance seconds before Toshinori jumped.

* * *

Ichigo might have been utterly terrified of the heights that her Guardian could reach if she wasn't so used to being weightless. Not to mention seeing the world look so small from such a long ways up. By her calculations, her Guardian was capable of reaching up to forty or fifty miles off of the ground if he was using all his strength.

But at present he seemed to be going easy on them and only reached ten miles with his jump. She didn't actually know how he managed to travel that way without going overboard.

She knew that she would have but that's only because she always had so much excess energy to burn. And flying was... _liberating_. It had always felt nice to her to unwind by flying around.

But she supposed that this was nice too. She certainly liked the view well enough.

The city that she now called her 'home' was nothing like her original one. For starters, Karakura Town had a population of nearly seventy six thousand and three hundred and ten. This place had more than that. Much, much more. She also couldn't always sense the people back home either.

There was usually some sort of spiritual interference that prevented her from sensing specific things.

Whereas she could literally _feel_ everyone and everything here.

There was no weird buzzing along her senses, no static, or interference of any kind to prevent her from being able to feel them. And if not for her own natural, god given shields- she probably would have gone utterly mad already.

There was just so many people that she could barely count them all.

In fact for the better part of their trip, she had already taken note of how many people had died and how many children had just been born. So to say that she was a tad bit zoned out up until her Guardian landed this last time within the school gates, would be a pretty apt description of her.

Hell, she couldn't even recall if any of her travel companions had even asked her anything between the first jump and this one. She didn't even notice when she'd been put down on the ground again. At least up until she started staggering and someone had to catch her before she could fall.

"Whoa there, little listener." A guy with spiked blond hair said gently as he held her upright.

All she could do right then was blink at him for a second and then eye his hairstyle suspiciously and think, _Why does this guy have a cockatiel on his head?_ If Chad had been here with her, and seen this guy's hair he would have attempted to free the poor bird trapped in his hair already.

It might not have ended well for the guy in the long run, but she and Chad would have had something to laugh about later.

"Aww, she's so cute!" She heard a woman say. "Toshinori why didn't you tell me she was so cute?!" The woman said as she pointed at her guardian.

Ichigo blinked again and took a look around and realized that there was a bunch of people present. "What the-" She muttered, grabbing blondy's wrist in one of her hands as she felt her mind begin to focus on her current surroundings a little bit more.

There were at least a dozen people or more standing all around her and she was sad to say it, but she started to panic a little bit from being caught unawares by them. After all, the last time that had happened she'd spent six months in a coma clinging to life for the second time in two years.

It wasn't an experience that she wanted to repeat again. And certainly not anytime soon.

She didn't notice that she was about to go into a panic attack. Nor that her thoughts must have been reflected in her expression or the way that her breathing became erratic or even the fact that she was shaking until someone- the dark haired guy that seemed to be friends with her Guardian- had her wrapped tightly in his arms.

"Shota?" Mic said questioningly, wondering why the man had suddenly run up and wrapped himself around the girl as if he were trying to protect her from them.

It took him hearing Shota say, "Calm down Ichigo. Breathe with me, okay?" to understand what was even happening. And once he did understand, he was quick to put a hand on the girl's back and rub it soothingly while Shota coached her until she finally calmed down again.

She was slumped against Shota's shoulder, just breathing when the man slowly released her so that he could hold her away from him for several moments and look her over with a frown. "Feeling better now?"

"Y-Yeah. Thanks." She said, tiredly while thinking, _Panic attack's suck._ She suddenly felt more tired than she had in a while. Almost like any energy she'd had before was just... _gone_.

He nodded his head and then shifted his hold on her to one of her arms- remembering that she'd been injured earlier and tended to smack the shit out of whoever was stupid enough to grab her injury- and tugged her over to a patch of grass not too far away and had her sit down there until Toshinori was done talking with everyone.

Once she was seated, he meandered away to talk to a few people too. Leaving her more or less alone until Ka-chan walked over and sat down on the ground next to her and made himself comfortable before then asking her, "Are you sure that you're alright there princess? You don't look so hot to me."

She gave him a small smile and muttered, "You're such a sweet talker Ka-chan."

Katsuki snorted at her sarcasm but didn't comment further since he knew that she was using it as a means to deflect his attention from her current mental state.

He'd just sit and observe her for now and intervene when needed.

* * *

Toshinori had had to pause his talk with Nezu to see what Ichigo was doing when he heard Mic yelp a few minutes prior and had seen Shota wrap himself around the girl in a protective manner that had raised some questions with him. But he figured that the man must have a really good reason for doing so.

And he didn't seem to need to worry about her just yet. He'd do that in another minute or two when he finally finished his talk with the principal.

Nezu waited patiently for him to turn his focus back to him since he knew that Toshi was concerned. And frankly he couldn't blame the man any.

Between his Hero duties, his teaching duties, and now his duties as the girl's Guardian- it was a little bit understandable that the man was spread just a bit thin. And it would get better. It would simply take a little bit of time for things to settle.

Especially since the girl obviously needed a _lot_ of watching for the moment.

"So she was kidnapped? Right off of the street while you were working?" Nezu asked his tone both a bit curious and incredulous. After all, he couldn't imagine a villain more _stupid_ than the one that had grabbed Toshinori's young charge. Even if he had been distracted at the time.

It was still a fairly dumb move on any villain's part.

"Yes." Toshinori hissed out in agitation. Now that he had Ichigo back and they were both back on the school grounds, he was starting to feel wound up again. Just for different reasons this time.

"No wonder you seemed upset when you were on the news a little while ago." Nezu said more to himself than Toshi before then asking, "Is Ichigo well?"

"She was clipped by a bullet. So...one of her arms is hurt."

Nezu's ears twitched for a second before he turned and called out to Recovery Girl. The old woman shuffled over and got a quick explanation about why she'd been called over and then shuffled off to take care of Toshinori's kid before the man blew a frigging gasket.

* * *

"Hey."

"Hn?"

"When you took those losers out earlier... What kind of combat move was that? It wasn't familiar." Katsuki asked with a frown.

"Mixed martial arts." Ichigo replied before then slowly explaining. "I've already told my guardian and...tall, dark, and grim-"

"You mean Aizawa-sensei?"

"Yeah, him- that I know karate. I didn't see any real need to tell them about the mixed martial arts too."

Katsuki was quiet for a moment as he mulled over her words. "So you didn't think that either of our sensei's needed to really know that you can kick ass and take names? Seriously?" He asked in an incredulous tone. Trying to figure out exactly what was going through her mind.

_"I don't know any of you."_ She said. Her tone emphasizing her point to him. "I don't actually know yet if any of you are really good or decent people. I don't know what you can do." The words, _I don't know how dangerous you are to me,_ may have went unsaid.

But the implication of them still left Katsuki feeling breathless as if he'd been viciously punched in the gut by an angry All Might himself. It was both distressing and disturbing to him that she felt the need to even try to protect herself from them.

That she didn't really recognize any of them as actual _good_ people. In fact she seemed to be waiting for the other shoe to drop any moment now and for them to show her what utter monsters they really were.

It made him feel sick to his stomach that she would think those things.

That she would even feel them necessary to begin with.

He might have tried to ask her something else, but Recovery Girl had shuffled over and had gotten Ichigo's attention. He noted an automatic shift in her demeanor at the woman's presence.

She sat up straighter, spoke more politely- she had that 'yes, ma'am, no, ma'am' sort of habit that reminded him of Deku and had him scowling at her despite the fact that she wasn't even looking at him.

Truth be told, he didn't really know what to think of her sudden change and use of actual manners. She usually seemed to be so damned bluntly honest at times that it was sort of annoying.

Still, watching her interact with Recovery Girl was _somewhat_ insightful, he supposed. He'd say this for the girl, she _was_ a sweet talker. Especially when it came to ladies.

He could tell by the way Recovery Girl kept giggling and blushing like a school girl. In fact she was still doing so even when she finally shuffled off. Ichigo smiled at the woman and waved to her as she slowly left them, looking thoroughly pleased with herself.

"What the fuck was that?" Katsuki demanded feeling weird about the whole thing. After all, it wasn't everyday that he saw a girl his age openly _flirting_ with a seventy something year old lady.

"A demonstration on how to speak to girls. I thought that you could use the lesson. Ya know, when you grow up and want a girlfriend." Ichigo said cheerfully as her hand dropped back to her lap. He growled at her in annoyance and snarled.

"That was fucking weird."

"Child." She snapped back at him. "Grow a pair and try being _nice_ to a girl."

"I'll show you nice!" He growled as he lunged at her, intending to at least knock her over and scare her. However in his current snit, he'd temporarily forgotten that she had told him that she knew martial arts.

So he really shouldn't have been as shocked as he was when she slapped the _bejesus_ out of him and sent him sprawling to the ground with a loud yelp that had every set of adult eyes on them in zero point two seconds flat, as she jumped to her feet and roared at the slightly cowering boy, _"I said be nice you little bastard!"_

Everyone stared at the kids oddly for a heartbeat or so in utter silence before Toshinori let out an aggrieved sounding sigh. When Mic suddenly asked aloud in an totally awed tone, "Are you a god?" Which set Shota, Midnight, and a few others off in a fit of hysterical giggles.

And for good reason too.

It was a rare thing for anyone to render young Bakugo totally speechless. It was another entirely to have him _cowering_ from said person after a mere slap.

He didn't even cower before him, and he was the boy's idol!

But Ichigo had somehow managed to do both of those things in the span of a heartbeat.

_Wonderful._ Toshi thought sarcastically knowing that Bakugo was going to give his charge all kinds of hell later on in retaliation. And since the boy was clever and knew his habits and such- he might not be able to shield her from the teen's wrath.


	12. Chapter 12

Once Toshi finished speaking with Nezu, he decided that Ichigo had had more than just an eventful day. What with the kidnapping, being shot ect.

After smacking young Bakugo- she had earned herself some fans- in the form of several of his more shameless co-workers. All of whom would of course remain nameless, mostly because he was so terribly disappointed in the lot of them.

He knew that young Bakugo wasn't all that well liked and all because of his personality, but he was one of their precious students. They should be able to control their _glee_ at seeing him reduced to a cowering mess at some girl's feet.

Even if he was single handedly responsible for several people's nervous breakdowns, spontaneous crying jags, and a shit load of anxiety... The boy didn't deserve to be leered at in such a manner.

He nearly shouted at Mic, Midnight, Ectoplasm, and Snipe to all move away from his charge, when he saw them all starting to crowd her, before he gave in to temptation and told her to _slap_ them too. However doing so would have been immature of him.

And really violence was never the answer to anything. In fact he was already planning to lecture Ichigo about slapping people.

Even if one of them was an overly aggressive teenage boy that had lunged at her... Oh who the hell was he kidding? He was actually kind of proud of her for knocking the crap out of the boy. But at the same time he was just as equally appalled.

Walking over to where his charge and his shameless co-workers were, he mentally prepared himself for something ridiculous and nearly tripped over his own feet when he reached them and found Midnight attempting to smother the poor girl with her bosom.

Bristling at the fact that Ichigo looked as if she'd just lost any will to keep struggling, he reached out automatically and extracted the girl from the woman's grasp.

And was rewarded by having the teen latch onto him and and take big gulps of air a few times before finally looking up at him and saying in a slightly disturbed tone, "I saw a bright light at the end of a tunnel- and my grandmother beckoned me to cross over." She paused for a moment before then saying, "I-I don't even recall _having_ a grandmother!"

He didn't know if Ichigo was kidding or not. But seeing one's dead unknown grandmother 'beckon'ing her to the other side, must have been weird for her.

He absently patted her on the back while she clung to his arm like it was a life line and glared at Midnight who looked thoroughly crushed to have had the girl snatched from her. "Hey!" She shouted at him. "I was cuddling here!"

"You were smothering her." Toshi growled at the woman. Ichigo let out a funny little whimper at his words and he had to pat her back a few more times.

"Was not!"

"You were so! A few more seconds of your 'cuddling' and I would have had to resuscitate her!" Toshi hissed at Nemuri. Which caused the woman to pout as he felt Ichigo pat his arm and glanced over at her as she slowly released him and then asked,

"Can I go to my room or something? I'm uncomfortable here."

"Oh, yes. Yes of course you can." He replied gently, any irritation he previously felt easily melting away in leu of letting his young charge run off since she obviously didn't seem very happy at the moment. "Do you remember where it is?"

"I'm sixteen, not six." The girl muttered. He couldn't think of anything else to say to her for the moment, so he just shooed her off with one of his hands and watched her go. After which, young Bakugo decided to head back to the dorm too.

Apparently he'd had enough abuse for the day. All Toshi could do was stare a hole at his back and hope that he didn't do anything to get slapped again.

* * *

"Feeling less afraid now?" Ichigo asked once she realized that Ka-chan was walking along behind her. Her question must have offended him. He made a 'tsk'ing sound but otherwise didn't really respond.

So she tried a different question.

"How's your face? Still sting?"

_"Yes."_ The boy replied in an annoyed tone. "It still stings."

"Alright." She muttered as she stuffed her hands in her pant's pockets.

"Anything else?" He suddenly asked after a few heartbeats.

"Yeah."

"What?"

"Sorry I hit you so hard."

He was quiet again but she could hear him moving a tad bit faster and could even see him as he stepped up along side her left. Looking over at him, she blinked when he glowered at her a bit. His expression irked. And yet...it wasn't as bad as it had been before.

In fact, his expression looked more... _inviting_. Nicer even.

"Apology accepted. Don't do it again though."

"I make no promises." She said with a frown. And he snickered.


	13. Chapter 13

The rest of that day was fairly uneventful.

Though Toshinori did stay up late into the night looking up news reports online and such trying to see just what sort of information they may have gotten on Ichigo, her kidnapping- however brief- and a few other things. So that he could be prepared just in case he needed to do some damage control.

Luckily, no one outside of his co-workers at U.A even knew just yet that he'd become the girl's legal guardian. Which was a bit of a relief since it meant that Ichigo wouldn't have a target on her back in some form or another quite yet.

He still had some time to help her with her other problems before something else happened. It wasn't lost n him just how lucky they'd been today when she'd been taken.

And while Bakugo had said that he'd helped her- Toshinori very much doubted that the boy could have taken the villains out by _himself_. Which kept making him wonder if perhaps his young charge had been of some help.

I mean, she _had_ said that she knew karate and was even a black belt at it.

That information alone insinuated that she knew how to at least defend herself a bit, right? And it wasn't as if he really knew her well enough to know whether or not she could _actually_ take villains on without any help.

Especially ones with dangerous quirks.

No matter. He had already spoken with Nezu about having her tested to see what sort of abilities she had so that she could be placed in the proper classes at the school once they started up their usual schedule again. And as much as he wanted her to be placed in the Hero course with the rest of many of his students, so that he could have her easily accessible in cases of emergencies- he knew that it just might not be possible.

The Hero course wasn't something to be taken lightly. Nor half assed. She could be very seriously _injured_ in a sparring match like young Midoriya had been on his first day of school.

Sighing, he reached out and picked up the TV remote lying on the coffee table in front of him and turned off the TV. The hour was later than he would have liked, and he had a busy day tomorrow. So it was time to head on to bed after he peeked in on Ichigo one last time to see what she was doing.

He could hear her new radio playing softly in her bedroom like it had been since he'd finally returned to the room hours earlier. And he would be the first to admit some curiosity as to what she must have been up too since she hadn't joined him for dinner or anything.

Getting up, he moved quietly towards her bedroom door and gently grasped the knob in his large hand and slowly turned his wrist and used his other hand to push the door open a sliver.

He didn't see her at first due to the fact that her bed was sort of hiding her from view, but he could hear her mutter an soft- if slightly vexed sounding, "Damn stubborn beads. Go on the wire already." And chuckled softly before then poking his head into the room to find her sitting on the floor beside her bed. Her head sticking up over the far edge of it indicating her location.

She looked like she wanted to curse some more in irritation as he quietly cleared his throat to get her attention, and smiled at her when she turned her head to look at him.

"It's late my girl. I'm going to bed now. You should probably do the same."

She blinked at him owlishly and then turned her head to check her small digital clock and muttered, "Crap. No wonder my eyes have been blurring." Turning back to him she huffed quietly before saying, "Yeah, bed would be good right about now." And then started to pick up her things.

He stood there and watched her for several minutes before she then climbed into her bed. Well, perhaps 'climb' wasn't the right way to describe what she did. She didn't so much as climb into bed as she flopped down on it gracelessly, her body lying on top of the covers, and closed her eyes.

"Do you want me to tuck you in?" He asked, not really knowing what else to do at the moment.

She cracked an eye open and looked at him oddly before replying with a bemused sounding, "Is that still a thing? I didn't know that tucking in's were still a thing once a person hit a specific age."

He hummed and asked again. "Do you?"

She seemed to think for a moment before then shrugging her shoulders a bit. "I-I guess?" She sounded as if she didn't know what to do here anymore than he did.

Taking her weak sounding 'I guess' as permission, he pushed the door open a tad bit further and stepped into the room. Moving quickly over to her bed and grasping the covers in one hand since she'd been kind enough to remove herself from lying on top of them so that his job would be easier.

She got herself into place and lay down so that he could pull the covers up over her and then curled up under them with a small contented sigh.

"Do you need me to get you anything before I head off?" He asked, wondering if he should get her a glass of water just in case she got thirsty later. Especially since he knew that some kids needed such things lest they have trouble sleeping.

"No."

"Do you want me to leave your little lamp on?"

"Sixteen, not six." She reminded him tiredly. He smiled as he watched her green eyes drift shut for a moment before then blurting out.

"Do you want me to kiss your forehead?"

Her eyes popped open again and she stared at him oddly again before asking, "Is that still a thing too?"

He shrugged. "I'm not sure. But I thought that I'd ask just in case." And then tacked on a slightly worried sounding, "D-Did I make you uncomfortable?"

"No. I'm just...thinking."

"Oh."

"I know that my younger sisters still got kisses at bed time. But then...they are four years younger than me so..."

"Do you want to try it once? Just to see if it's something that you might like?" He asked before quickly adding, "If it makes you feel weird or uncomfortable then I won't do it again."

She mulled over his suggestion for a moment or so while he waited patiently for her to decide and then finally got a small nod from her. "Okay, just once."

He smiled at her and then reached out and gently smoothed her dark hair back from her face a little bit and then leaned down and kissed her forehead and then straightened back to his full height again. "How was that?"

She absently rubbed the spot that he'd kissed and muttered, "Not bad. But it's a little bit weird though."

He nodded his head in understanding and filed away a 'no more nighttime forehead kisses at bedtime' thing in his head to use as a reminder and pulled the covers up around her shoulders as she tried to stifle a yawn and uttered a tired sounding 'goodnight' to him as he reached for the switch to her lamp and shut it off before quietly leaving the room.

* * *

The next day started for Toshinori at about nine due to the fact that he'd slept in a bit. And as annoying as it was that he had to forgo his usual morning routine a little bit. It was understandable given the fact that he had things to do today.

Like take Ichigo and have her abilities tested.

Naturally he was already a bundle of nerves and anxiety about it. Part of him wanting desperately to see what his young charge could do. While silently bemoaning the fact that she might not be able to _do_ anything at all.

So once he was up and showered and dressed, he went into the kitchen to start cooking breakfast for himself and Ichigo but drew up short when he saw that she was already up and fixing them both some food.

"Ah, good morning Ichigo."

"Mornin." She said around a sliver of cut up banana that he'd seen her pop into her mouth.

"I didn't know that you tended to get up early," He said as he grabbed himself a mug out of the cabinet next to her and got himself some of the coffee that he saw was sitting in the coffee machine. "D-Did you make this coffee?" He asked feeling slightly wary while he tried to recall if he had drank all of the coffee he'd fixed yesterday or if there had been any left over.

Picking up the glass pitcher, he took an experimental sniff of it, still trying to figure out if it was fresh or not as she replied, "Yeah, I fixed some."

"Oh alright, thank you." He said as he went ahead and poured himself a cup and took an experimental taste of it and automatically perked up as he took another drink. After the third or fourth drink he finally says, "Oh this is... _divine._ What did you use to make it taste so good?"

"Sorry, if I told you I'd have to kill you." Ichigo jokingly says as she pops a blueberry into her mouth this time.

Toshinori doesn't even bother to chastise her for the joke. He merely hums in contentment and finishes off his mug before going back for more- and deciding to take the whole damn pitcher with him when he walks away.

Ichigo casts him a funny look from over one of her shoulders when she notices the pitcher missing from the coffee machine. He didn't care though, he's totally in bliss and trying to figure out what she'd put in it so that he could make some himself next time.

So far his mind has settled on cocaine. And while he isn't quite sure how she might have found it, bought it- _whatever_. He can't really find it in himself just yet to be all that upset about it.

The coffee was just that damned good.

While he's spaced out and still trying to figure out what's in the stuff, she finally finishes up breakfast and sets a plate of handmade waffles with some different fruits- banana slices, strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries- topped with some strange white liquid substance on top of them, in front of him.

"Wow, this looks great." He said, trying hard not to let his watering mouth spill over. It would be awkward to wind up drooling in front of his young charge so early in their relationship.

Right now he was trying to project 'coolness and professionalism' as both a pro-hero and her guardian.

"You're kind of drooling." She said with a frown, jarring him out of his thoughts so that he could hastily wipe at his mouth with his hand.

An embarrassed flush coloring his cheeks as he eyed her knowing that both his coolness and professionalism just vanished in her eyes.

"Ah, sorry." He said as he finally dropped his hand away from his mouth. "The food smells really good." He said lamely, still blushing.

"Then go ahead and eat before you flood the place and drown us both." She said as she gently nudged his plate towards him. He smiled a bit and then noted that she didn't have a plate for herself and his smile fell some.

"Are you not eating this morning?"

"I already ate." She replied smoothly. Maybe a little bit too smoothly. He cocked his head as he regarded her for a moment, uncertain about if she was lying or not. But didn't want to offend or hurt her feelings by calling her out on it right now. So he decided to tuck into his meal for now.

"What's on the agenda today?" She asked once he'd taken several large bites and was already almost half way through his breakfast.

Pausing in mid motion, he looked at her and said. "Testing. I'm going to have your abilities tested to see what exactly you can do."

"Why?" She asked, looking less than thrilled at the prospect. Which was...unusual since most of the kids he knew were usually eager to show him what they could do in the hopes of impressing him.

"Because I need to know what classes you would be best suited for once school starts up again in a few more days."

"What do my abilities have to do with determining _that_?"

"Because I need to see if you would do well in the Hero course." She frowned at him, and didn't really seem to understand what he meant. So he tried to elaborate some. "The Hero course is where kids your age, go to learn to become future pro-heroes. They learn to use their quirks to the best of their ability and fight."

"Sounds like your training children to be soldiers."

He looked a bit concerned at the conclusion that she'd just drawn from his explanation. And couldn't help but wonder _why_ she would think that. Though he supposed that technically she was right.

After all everyone who participated in the Hero course was expected to become heroes eventually. Once their training and schooling was thoroughly completed.

"I suppose that is one way to look at it. Though the kids are usually quite happy to be in the Hero course since it's part of what they want for the future. There is a rigorous exam to see what they can do and everything!"

"How nice for them." The tone of her voice was anything but nice or excited. Which was puzzling to him.

After all, he couldn't imagine a more _wonderful_ future goal for her than helping people like he did. Being a Pro-hero was a nice and fulfilling job. Why couldn't she seem to understand that?

"D-Do you not like hero's?" He suddenly asked, sounding sad.

"I have respect for anyone that could do what heroes do and _not_ break from it." He perked up a little bit. Feeling relieved as she then went on to say, "Doing the things that you do isn't for the faint of heart or the weak. That being said...I have no interest in being a hero. So don't bother putting me in classes to be trained to be one."

He felt his jaw drop open in dismay as he stared at her utterly flabbergasted. _How could she not want to be a hero?!_ Literally everyone wanted to be one!

_Why doesn't she?_ He wondered as she quietly got up and then walked off.


	14. Chapter 14

To say that Toshinori was...displeased with his young charge. And maybe more than a tad bit confused too, would be an understatement. He was terribly disappointed at the moment.

So much so that after she'd walked off, he'd pushed his plate away. Having lost his appetite due to the conversation. And then got up and left to go talk to someone about this... _horrible_ development and maybe see if he could get some advice on how to proceed with Ichigo from here.

He wound up talking to several people.

All of whom listened to him, but were unhelpful since they didn't exactly know the girl's reasons. Though someone did mention maybe putting her in therapy to see if it helped with some of her other issues.

Toshi only agreed to the therapy thing because to his knowledge Ichigo must be _insane_. In fact he was almost thoroughly convinced of this fact.

After all, what sort of teenager _didn't_ want to be a hero?

It was literally inconceivable to him that anyone wouldn't want to be a hero. Heroes were emulated, and admired by people all over the world! In fact, being a pro-hero was hailed as one of the most helpful and admirable jobs.

You got to help people! Save lives! Beat the snot out of criminals! And make the community safer for future generations. All of which were great things.

_How could anyone not want to be one?!_

He'd gone back to his living quarters to ask her. But the damned girl was _MIA_.

He found her bedroom window open and some of her craft stuff gone. Which was just weird as well as unsafe considering that they were almost five floors up off of the ground.

So after checking to make sure that there wasn't a Ichigo-pizza outside he'd turned right around and run off again. Not to look for her though. He figured that if she'd been injured or something then he would have found her automatically. No- this time he went straight to Shota to see what he would say about her not wanting to be a hero.

He honestly should have expected the man to be insensitive about this dilemma. But he hadn't expected him to outright _laugh_ at him after he finally finished talking.

"I expected better of you Shota." He said sullenly as the smaller man tried to stop laughing at him.

"I can't help it." Shota wheezed out. "The world's number one hero- the guy who inspires _billions_ of people world wide- can't even inspire one little girl to follow in his footsteps!"

He started laughing again while Toshinori gave him a look of utter disdain. Because despite their many, many years of friendship- Shota was still proving himself to be the same _jerk_ that he'd always been.

"How are we still friends? I mean, _really_? I come to you with a problem and you laugh at me just like you did when we were both still students. How can this-" Toshi motioned to himself and then to Shota with a finger. "Still be the normal pattern? Don't kids usually grow out of being little assholes? Ya know, _mature_?"

His words were meant to hurt the smaller man's feelings since his laughter had hurt his, but Shota merely flopped over on his couch giggling in between commenting on things with a smug sounding tone, "I'm more mature than you are." And of course, "Someone has to be an asshole- it just happens that I'm better at it than you are."

Toshnori grumbled in annoyance because _this was not helping anything_!

"I came to you for advice on how to fix this."

"I know." Shota said, finally settling down enough to stop laughing and giggling like a lunatic. "And here is my advice to you- _stop_ pushing her to be what you want her to be. She's right, pro-hero work isn't for the weak nor the faint of heart. What's good for someone else wouldn't be for her."

Toshi scowled at him and looked like he wanted to argue but Shota shut him down. "Toshi, the girl just appeared here from god knows where. She was hurt, bloody, bruised and had clearly either seen or wound up participating in some sort of hellish fight and nearly _died_ from it. The friend that she tried to save, did die."

"Right in front of her, the two of us and who knows how many of the kids aside from Bakugo and Midoriya. Do you really think that forcing her to be part of something that she feels wouldn't be right for her- especially with her other issues; would be good for her? Are you really that fucking _dense_?"

Toshinori opened his mouth to say something, but Shota cut him off since he wasn't quite done yet.

"The girl was traumatized by whatever led up to her appearance here Toshi. Deeply so. And pushing her into something that she doesn't want- and probably doesn't need anyways- isn't just cruel, but arrogant, and insensitive of you too. For fuck's sake, the girl has a death wish! Do you really want to help her along with it?"

Toshinori remained quiet as he mulled over Shota's words, understanding that he had made some very, very valid points. But at the same time, despite pointing out the rather obvious flaw in the man's plans- it still left him uncertain with what to do with her.

He had enrolled her in U.A hoping that maybe a tad bit of normalcy would help her some.

And what was more normal than going to school and making friends with other kids? Although he supposed that wanting her to be in the Hero course was a bit selfish of him.

But...he couldn't help it. He _worried_.

Schools- especially new one's- could be difficult to adapt to. Children could often be cruel to one another. What if she was bullied? Or had some sort of episode? And no one was there to help her?

What if things got so bad that she really did _kill_ herself? He wasn't stupid enough to think that it wasn't a distinct possibility. Nor was he naive enough to believe it wasn't at all possible.

He also wasn't dumb enough to believe that being in a strange place and having to start over while trying to pull herself out of her depression and other things was an easy task that just being near him would _magically_ solve either.

There was no magical cure for depression. There was no magically cure for a lot of issues that she had. Sure medications might help to a degree- but even he knew that she would likely struggle not to let everything get the better of her for the rest of her life.

He finally felt his earlier ire slipping away bit by bit as he realized his mistake. Shota was right. He was being arrogant and selfish here. Hell, he'd even go so far as to say that he was acting childish and downright bratty.

But he also knew that he'd have a bit of apologizing to do when he saw his young charge later.

"Should I grovel when I see her next?" He asked Shota, wondering if the man would advise him on this just one last time.

"It probably wouldn't hurt." Shota said without hesitation. Toshinori merely hung his head and sighed.


	15. Chapter 15

Contrary to popular belief, Ichigo wasn't _hiding_ from her guardian. She didn't hide from anyone! She wasn't a coward after all. But she did have enough sense to know when to strategically withdraw from something before it escalated into possible violence.

Her past experiences had taught her that well enough.

And though she'd left via her bedroom window and knew what that was possibly insinuating to him- she wasn't _running_ from the man either. Especially since running never solved anything.

No- as far as she was concerned, if her guardian wanted to be an asshole about her being placed in his precious Hero course at the school then she'd be a bitch right back at him.

It wasn't as if she were feeling particularly _shy_ about her displeasure. Especially right this moment. But she knew full well that the repercussions weren't worth letting her ire run loose any.

No matter how loudly that crazed little voice of her inner hollow _howled_ at her to be let out and reap some vengeance on someone's poor, unsuspecting head.

She'd rather have a arm hacked _off_ than do something quite that stupid, thank you very much. Especially when it would bring her so much more unwanted attention.

So instead she found herself a nice- hopefully secluded patch of...grass?- somewhere as far away from the dorm as humanly possible without the use of alien technology teleporting her. And laid down on the ground underneath a tree and made herself comfortable.

She figured that she'd be occupied for a while watching the clouds or something. And whenever she got bored with that, then maybe she could do some work with the craft stuff that she'd brought with her. Ya know, to kill even more time before she had to finally return to her...shared living space and face her guardian again.

She had been sitting there trying to think nice thoughts. Soothing thoughts- but kept seeing her inner hollow set her guardian's smiling face on fire in her mind. So naturally, she told her to stop it since she wasn't being helpful.

Which led to her inner hollow sulking and grumble in her mind, _"I don't get it, who doesn't like setting people's faces on fire?"_

_I don't. Now stop sending me weird visions. I'll have more nightmares than I already do._

Once her inner hollow finally fell silent, she sighed and tried to relax by watching the clouds. But there weren't any in the sky. Not in the immediate vicinity anyways. Which caused her a great deal of distress. Emotionally.

Not to mention caused the grass some distress when she started to tear it out of the ground in annoyance when someone walked up to her and asked, "What has that grass ever done to you?" She froze up, her fingers twitching around the blades that she'd been about to rip up as she tipped her head back to look at the person who'd just snuck up on her.

It was the little white furred animal thingy that her guardian had been speaking with yesterday.

Forcing her hand to release the blades of grass that had been about to fall prey to her temper- she slowly pushed herself up into a sitting position and waited for the creature to do or say something else. She didn't have to wait long since the little guy decided to sit down on the ground next to her.

"I hope that you don't mind my sitting here?" It asked politely.

She turned her head to look at it and just said quietly, "I don't mind."

The creature smiled at her in an indulgent manner that reminded her a lot of an old man. She blinked at him while wondering if he and old man Yamamoto had ever met. The creature _seemed_ like something that the former Captain-commander would have at his side.

"My name is Nezu." The creature finally said after a heartbeat or two. Hearing him give her his name jolted her out of her thoughts enough to politely introduce herself to him before he tacked on. "I'm the principal of U.A school."

She couldn't have been more astonished if she tried. Really she couldn't. She'd expected him to say that he was someone's pet- well no, he was too much like a human in speech and mannerisms to be any sort of pet- or even a companion. But the principal of a school? A school that had human children and staff?

She blurted out what she was thinking without meaning too. And had to quickly slap her hands to her mouth to prevent herself from saying something equally rude or offensive. While he laughed softly at her as she eyed him somewhat warily. Her mind already figuring out what he was.

Nezu, as he called himself wasn't just _any_ old creature. He was a mix of bear, rat, and dog. Making him a chimera. Normally chimera's were very dangerous. But then, they didn't have human reason or speech like this little guy did either.

Finally managing to calm inner turmoil enough to trust herself to try talking again, she eased her hands away from her mouth. "Sorry, that was...rude."

"It was," Nezu said in bemusement. "But I'm used to it."

Ichigo visibly cringed a little bit and drew her knees up to her chest and tried to make herself look small as Nezu suddenly said, "A seven foot two blond birdie has been zipping around my school and annoying the devil out of people." She curled herself up a bit tighter. "He's singing something of a sad tune about his new hatchling, not wanting to spread her wings and fly like other hatchlings."

She made an annoyed sound and glared at the ground.

"He's been quite distracting to those of us whom have been attempting to get some work done."

"I'm not apologizing." She said as she turned her head to look at him for a second.

"And you shouldn't." Nezu said kindly as he reached out and lay a little paw on her knee. "This is Toshi's issue to overcome. You have more than enough to overcome yourself. There's no need for the man to add more to your plate than you can already handle."

She was quiet as he removed his paw from her knee and sat in silence for a few more moments before then saying, "I think it would help him to better understand what your thinking. In regards to the Hero course. You know, maybe sit down and tell him exactly why your so opposed to it?"

"I'd _really_ rather not talk about it."

"I understand that. And it is _your_ choice whether you do or not. I know that there is a great deal of trust that must first be earned. But you also need to be aware that your guardian may nag you about your reasons until you tell him something."

"Let him. I can put up with his nagging until he's blue in the face." She said before then tacking on. "Besides, if he really wants to nag at me about it- then I get to nag at him for wearing his onesie outside in public. I mean how embarrassing can a man be?"

Nezu chuckled at her referring to Toshinori's hero costume as a 'onesie'. And could already see the man's expression when she finally brought it up to him. He'd be completely appalled. "Touche."

Ichigo shrugged, not caring in the least. They both fell quiet for several more minutes before Nezu shifted a little bit and asked, "Do you like cocoa?"

"Yeah."

"Oh good." He said jovially. "Come with me and we'll tweak your guardian's nose a bit for being an idiot while I try to finish up some of my paper work."

She blinked at him for a second before asking in a puzzled tone, "Is this your way of asking me to follow you like a kid that's been offered candy? You know, stranger-danger?"

"Take it however you like. I just want to have some entertainment while I work."

She didn't even need to weigh the pro's and con's since she wanted to see where this went. Cause it sounded suspiciously like he was asking her to let him kidnap her for a little bit to razz her guardian. She just nodded her head and slowly got up and grabbed her bag of stuff as he stood up and dusted his fur off and then started walking.


	16. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm already being fussed at by people who want me to alter the fact that I used Thanksgiving as an example for the holiday mentioned. 
> 
> I mean, really? I can't use a holiday for an example without people getting pissy with me and demanding that I change shit to suit them. For crying out loud, it's September when she leaves the hospital to live with Toshinori.
> 
> Anyways, this is a pretty decent chap. I'm proud of it. So hopefully you'll all like it too.

* * *

Ichigo was a strangely quiet child, Nezu noted once the two of them got back to his office and she had her cocoa in hand, she settled herself on the floor between the couch and the coffee table that he had in his office.

He also noted that she seemed _oddly_ comfortable with wandering off with strangers. The mention of stranger-danger earlier had caused the wheels in his head to turn at a rapid pace.

He didn't know why she seemed so comfortable with meandering off with strangers. But he did think that maybe it had to do with some of her abilities.

He already knew that she possessed _monstrous_ strength in those small hands of hers. He'd seen it in the security feed from the day that she'd appeared and had seen the massive sword that she'd carried and held one handed.

And thanks to the details that he'd gotten from speaking to Shota and Toshinori, he knew that such a blade must have weighed more than two hundred _kilos_. And to be able to hold it up, much less swing it with one hand- not only took a considerable amount of skill but more than a bit of super strength as well. Which had to be _impressive_. Otherwise the weapon would have been useless to her.

He also knew that she could summon...fairies? Was that what Shota had called them again?

So she must be able to do _other_ things as well. Though he must confess that he was a bit curious as to what the fairies could be used for. The student's Midoriya and Bakugo had mentioned that she'd tried to use them to save her friend, that she'd had with her at the time.

So she used them for healing, maybe? As long as her own life wasn't in jeopardy that is.

Still, he couldn't help but be curious about just what she could do. Glancing away from his stack of papers, he looked over to see what she was doing to amuse herself and blinked at the utter _chaos_ that she'd turned his coffee table into with her bag of stuff.

Curiosity finally getting the better of him, he laid his current papers aside and slid from his chair and walked over to see what she was doing a bit better.

He was only mildly surprised to see her stringing some beads onto a very slender wire and wrapping some of them at the ends after looping the wires together with other beads. She was quite good at it too.

"Is it supposed to be a bracelet or necklace?"

It was still short-ish so he felt he should ask.

"Bracelet. I've already finished several necklaces, rings, earrings, and six other bracelets." She said as she finally seemed to finish wrapping the wire around the last bead and began the task of attaching the clasp and loop to the piece.

"I see." He said as she finished and then held the finished product up so that he could really see it.

She had a fine eye for detail and for what looked good too, he'd give her that much. The colors of the crystal beads coupled with being wrapped in wire gave the piece a whimsical look that was just eye poppingly _pretty_.

"That's very nice. What do you intend to do with it?"

"I have no idea yet."

He hummed and cocked his head to the side for a moment as he recalled that Nemuri's birthday was coming up.

"May I have it?" She looked up at him and blinked owlishly for a second while he explained. "A co-worker has a birthday coming up soon. And that bracelet looks like it's just her thing."

She handed it over to him automatically and he smiled and wagged his tail a little bit. After scampering back to his desk to hide the bracelet, he then returned to where she was and crawled up onto the couch and asked. "Do you mind if I ask you some questions about the fairies?"

"Fairies?" She repeated as she looked puzzled for a moment.

"The one's that you can summon." He said with a slightly inquisitive tilt of his head.

She got an 'oh' look and then shifted around a little bit so that she was facing him instead of trying to look at him from over her shoulder. She'd get a bad crick in her neck if she stayed as she was.

"What do you want to know?" She asked, and it wasn't lost on him that she was a bit wary at the moment.

"What are they made of?"

"Flesh and blood."

"Really? Just like really tiny humans?"

"Well, the person who wields them gives them shape and form. So I suppose that that's one way to think of it."

"What do they do?"

"They can do multiple things. It really depends on the nature of the person wielding them."

Nezu hummed and then asked. "Can you give me an example?"

Ichigo sighed and took a moment to think before saying, "If the nature of the person wielding them is...dark. Then they are destructive. But if the nature of the one wielding them is kind- then they can heal, protect, and defend."

"And what do you use them for?"

"I can use them for just about anything, depending one what's going on and how _badly_ I need their help. But it takes a lot of energy to use them."

"How interesting." Nezu said thoughtfully before then asking, "Are they part of your quirk?"

Ichigo merely stared at him for a moment or so before saying tiredly, "I don't have a quirk."

"Pardon?" Nezu said, uncertain if he'd heard her right.

"I don't have a quirk." She said again, looking more than a tad bit uncomfortable.

"But you must-"

_"I don't."_

"Then...what-" Nezu started to ask her where she thought her abilities came from, but she cut him off with a slightly distressed sounding.

"I don't know."

So he shut his mouth and thought for a moment. While it was true that many people in the world with abilities generally had quirks. It wasn't _always_ the case. In fact about two percent of the known world's population had rare mutations that gave them abilities that weren't quirk related.

It was rare, considering the amount of people who had such abilities. But it did happen.

And it would be easy enough to confirm whether Ichigo had a quirk or not. In fact Recovery Girl could do it within five minutes. It really didn't take much effort on the woman's part since she was a healer.

And since she had healed Ichigo's arm the day before...he could ask her once the girl decided to leave. Which would probably be soon considering the seriously uncomfortable turn their conversation had just taken.

Finally he managed to say, "I see." Which was followed by a slightly distressed sounding, "I'm sorry that my questions have made you uncomfortable."

She stared at him hard for a moment and then quietly huffed and turned back around to begin collecting her things and put them away. Seeing that she was preparing to run away on him, he mentally berated himself for upsetting her before recalling that he'd said that they'd tweak Toshinori's nose a little bit.

Ichigo wasn't aware of it just yet, but Nezu had decided to shoot the man a text earlier that looked as if a serial killer had left him instructions on how to make things up to the girl for his earlier blunder.

Ya know, the letter/word cut out of various magazines and such.

So right about now Toshi was probably freaking out thinking that a serial killer had Ichigo.

He hoped that the man followed his instructions anyways. He also hoped that Ichigo was okay with the way that the man would be hovering over her for a little while. It was really the only way at this point for the two of them to figure things out and bond a bit more.

"Ah, Ichigo-" He finally spoke up, recalling the holiday in another day or so. "I wonder if you would mind spending a holiday with Toshinori?" The girl had paused in picking up the left over stuff from his coffee table and had been waiting for him to say something.

"What holiday?"

"Oh, it's something like an early Thanksgiving event. But with presents like Christmas. Since Pro-heroes rarely have the time," He hoped that he didn't need to explain to her that the usual life expectancy of a Pro-hero was usually twenty five, which was about five or so years into their career. And that was only if they were incredibly _lucky_. "To spend specific events with their family and friends- a few days out of the year were picked about twenty years or so ago when the government passed a bill making it an official holiday- so that everyone, even heroes could celebrate the holidays and such with the people that they care about."

"Because they have shorter than average lifespans right?" To say that he was happy that she understood that much about a Pro-heroes job, would be an understatement. He'd actually begun to sweat a little bit at the prospect of having to explain such a facet of a heroes life.

He hadn't been sure that she'd handle knowing that her life could be uprooted _again,_ very well.

He'd obviously underestimated her.

"Yes. That is right."

"Alright, what do I need to know to make it a nice holiday for...the goofball."

"Goofball?"

"Until he apologizes for his earlier blunder he's been demoted to goofball."

"Ah, I see." Nezu said in understanding. The child's mind was funny at times. And just a tad bit confusing too. But he still understood well enough. "Well, Toshi normally goes away from the city to celebrate the holiday. And on occasion he's been known to invite some of his friends, co-workers and even some select students who may not be able to go and see their families to celebrate the holiday with him. But with you here, he might decide to stay in the city this time."

The girl began chewing on her lower lip as she waited for him to finish filling her in.

"He's always been fond of the mountains. He also likes the traditional Thanksgiving turkey dinner, and even getting a tree and decorating it. He likes anything from books, to new capes, to movies and even some hand made stuff. Was that helpful?"

She frowned and mulled over what he'd said for a moment and then nodded her head yes. And then stuffed what was left of her things in her bag and picked up her empty cocoa cup and walked over to the trash can and put the paper cup in it and then walked back over to him and paused again and said, "I don't know exactly what would be proper protocol here." He cocked his head curiously. "I usually hug people before I leave them. Is that okay with you?"

He smiled and held his arms out to her.

She leaned down and gave him a quick hug, probably not wanting to make him feel as if she were trying to get to cozy with him. It was because of his fur, he supposed. For some reason human girls liked his fur and the possibility of cuddling him like any other animal.

It was nice to have someone _ask_ him for permission for once instead of just grabbing him and squeezing him until he felt the strong urge to bite them.

"Thanks for the cocoa and the company. Have a good holiday."

"You too, Ichigo." He said with a big grin. Already planning to send Toshi another text to tell him about the hug. He was betting that the man would be very jealous that he got one when he probably hadn't just yet.


	17. Chapter 17

_A holiday?_ She couldn't really recall the last time that she'd really been able to celebrate anything. Not for the last several years anyways. Between her usual Soul Reaper duties, the nearly constant fighting breaking out, making new friends/enemies, the losses etc...she'd just not really had the time to.

Which was sad.

Because after a while she, her family, and not even her friends had celebrated them anymore. To them celebrating something as trivial as a holiday was a luxury that they just couldn't afford anymore. A distraction.

Mostly because their life expectancy had dropped considerably once they'd all gained their abilities. And with the way she, Rukia, Chad and a few others tended to get hurt all the time...well, they'd had no choice but to acknowledge their mortality earlier than some of the others.

It had probably been why her dad and sisters stopped celebrating the holidays too after a while. They'd been slowly easing into the inevitable. _Her death_.

She suddenly felt like crying. The crushing weight of... _everything_ lodged like a stone in her chest, making it hard for her to breathe. It all just weighed so very heavily on her heart that she didn't know what to do anymore. But she knew that if she didn't push the horrible feeling welling up inside of her, she'd likely collapse onto the ground and never move again.

Putting a hand over her face- enough to cover her eyes anyways- she took a moment to try practicing one of the breathing techniques that the doctor at the hospital had taught her to stave off a panic attack.

_Focus on something else_. _Find a happy place and use it to center yourself._ She thought. Her inner hollow chimed in and tried to help. This time she didn't bother to show her visions of setting her guardian's face on fire. So despite how crappy she felt, she couldn't help but smile a little bit.

Especially when her inner hollow started griping about how damned _girly_ she felt right then. But then her inner hollow had helped to calm her down by showing her a vision of her late mother's favorite flowers.

A whole colorful field of them.

And since neither she nor her inner hollow were totally sure that they even _liked_ flowers, then she supposed that her inner hollow had an actual reason to complain for once.

Even she knew that Hollows and flowers didn't mix.

In fact she would bet anything that once she felt a bit calmer then her inner hollow was going to decide to 'frolic' through the flowery field for the sole reason of committing flowery genocide.

Still, it worked. It wasn't perfect, but it had helped.

She had to ignore the war cry from her inner hollow once she told her that she felt better. Turned out that she was right about the flower genocide. _Those poor flowers didn't stand a chance._ She thought to herself in bemusement as her lips twitched.

The last thing that she got from her inner hollow was a nice jump right into a thicket where she'd popped her head up out of the tall stems with a couple of wild flowers- roses- from the looks of it, were sticking out of her inner hollows mouth before promptly being spat out and a growl escaped her.

_"Blah, thorns!"_

Ichigo merely shook her head a little bit and pretended that she didn't have the sudden urge to laugh at her inner hollow's misfortune to wind up with roses/thorns in her mouth. But then that was what happened when one tried to commit flower genocide so eagerly, face first anyways.

Feeling a bit better now, she took a deep breath and started walking again.

It only took her a few more minutes to get back to the dorm. And once she got there she was greeted by the sight of her tall blond goofball guardian standing outside looking at his cell phone and looking both slightly alarmed and puzzled. His worried expression faded a bit once he finally saw her walking up. But then instantly came back once she was close enough for him to ask her.

"Uh, I-Ichigo? W-Why am I getting weird t-texts from a serial killer? And why is this creep boasting about getting a _hug_ from you?!"

She looked confused for a second before understanding dawned on her and she smirked evilly at the man before asking him, "Why are you freaking out that I gave someone other than you a hug?"

He sputtered at her indignantly as she then said, "Oh, I get it. You're jealous."

"I am..." Was about as far as he managed to get before Izuku came tearing out of the dorm screaming as he ran past them in a panic,

_"A serial killer just texted me! He somehow knows that I didn't do my homework yet!"_

Toshinori just stared after the boy wide eyed while Ichigo let out a low whistle and muttered. " _Damn_ , his information network is impressive." Which was followed by a soft questioning, "I wonder if he can give me pointers?"

While he took a moment to try and figure out what he should do first, apologize to Ichigo for earlier, address the serial killer texting him and young Midoriya issue, or if he should simply pack his things and get ready to leave the city for the holiday.

Finally coming to the decision that he and Ichigo _really_ needed to talk. Besides he still needed to apologize to her for not taking her wishes into consideration about the Hero course anyways.

He reached out and grabbed the girl- who didn't even yelp or squirm in his grasp- and quickly tucked her under his arm like a football and turned to leave.

Midoriya was a big boy now. He had his own quirk now and everything. So it wasn't as if he were really abandoning him or anything. He was just...trying to focus on one kid at a time at the moment and Ichigo simply took precedence over him at the moment.

But just to be on the safe side, he'd send Shota and a couple other people to make sure that the serial killer texting him wasn't going to be an actual issue.

It'd really, really suck to leave for the holiday and come back to find the boy had been killed. And frankly he wasn't all that thrilled to possibly explain to the boy's mother how _that_ had even happened in the first place.

Inko Midoriya might be a very small woman in stature but she was damned scary when crossed.

However if Shota and the others decided that it wasn't an issue, then he'd trust them enough to only blackmail _one_ student to act as the boy's sort-of-bodyguard while he was away. He was thinking maybe Ka-chan since the boy was closer to young Midoriya now than he'd probably ever been.

Plus if someone had to kill Izuku, it would likely be the temperamental blond boy anyways. At least that would be easier to explain to people.


	18. Chapter 18

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Halloween ya'll!
> 
> Today is my ten year wedding anniversary, and I've been stressing as all fuck. So I'll be spending it with my hubby until around 12 tonight. Which is when I should maybe start on the next chap.
> 
> Until then, here's the latest chap. I don't know if it's any good or not, but I didn't feel like rewriting it for a second or third time. 
> 
> So...roll with it, okay.

* * *

Once back in his- er, _their_ living space Toshinori and Ichigo took a few minutes to get comfortable and make themselves something to eat. Because 'children and large muscled men get cranky when they're ravenously hungry and things tend to get violent'.

Which was part of a kind of running joke amongst some of Toshi's co-workers.

Partially because whenever he stomped through the halls in a snit someone nearby would hand him a Snickers bar or something and he'd instantly calm down at the prospect of devouring it.

After all, there was no reason for Ichigo to know that. It was enough of a weakness as it was. And he had a feeling that if she knew about it, then she'd also shamelessly exploit it.

Once they had both wolfed down their food and grabbed themselves their favorite drink from the fridge, they then moved to sit in the living room.

"I need to talk- no, apologize to you for this morning." Toshi said as Ichigo made herself comfortable and grabbed a cushion to put between them. Initially, he didn't know what to think of the small action. But it quickly dawned on him that she did it as if she were placing a barrier between them.

It was a small and subtle way to protect herself from _him_.

His speech faltered upon realizing this and he suddenly started to feel nauseous. Wondering if it was really him that she was attempting to create a barrier against or maybe someone else.

Possibly someone whom his actions earlier had reminded her of on a subconscious level.

He let his eyes flicker to her face, noting the slightly disturbing way that she was staring at him. Unblinkingly. As if she thought that at the exact second she took to blink, he'd lash out at her.

Anger burned through him. It was subtle in the slight darkening of his blue eyes, the blank expression that his face suddenly adopted. But since he didn't want her to see it- he pushed the feeling aside for now to focus on everything else.

"Uh...c-could you please blink?" He didn't mean to sound so freaked, even if he was more angry than actually freaked out by the fact that she was staring him down like a wild animal. But well, he sort of couldn't help it. She had a _really_ unnerving stare for a sixteen year old kid.

"Nope."

"B-But your eyes will get dry." He said, hoping to get her into blink. But the girl was stubborn.

"I'll live." She said as she absently sipped on her drink while continuing to stare at him.

Sighing because he wasn't sure what to make of her behavior at the moment. He ran a large hand through his blond hair and continued where he'd left off. "I didn't mean not to take your feelings into consideration about the Hero course. I-It's just...that I worry about not having you where I can see you and reach you if something happens. I mean, what if you get bullied-"

"I know how to handle bullies," Ichigo said with a slight scoff. "I've been handling bullies since before my mom died. I'm technically a Navy Seal at it. I take a licking and keep on ass kicking." He didn't bother to respond to her language since it took him a moment to get past that last part as she added. "Besides, there are _bigger_ things than bullies to worry about."

"I know." Toshinori said firmly, yet gently. "I also worry about what being alone would do to your depression. I mean, would it make it worse or better?"

" _Worse_. I don't really do well alone," Ichigo said as her eyes finally started to burn and she decided to blink. She missed the look of concern on her guardian's face when she did. But she could sort of feel it's presence there even before she opened her eyes again. "It's not that I can't or anything. But I just _stop_ functioning well without at least one familiar face around."

"Ah." Toshinori said in understanding.

She relied on a form of co-dependency to help her function. _No wonder she's_ _depressed. Her friend... Rukia, must have helped her out when she was in unfamiliar places and such._ He thought to himself as he mentally went over how co-dependency worked before realizing that she'd been displaying signs of _needing_ someone around to help her since he'd brought her here.

And he could have smacked himself for being so dense. Truly he could have. Especially since he _knew_ that while it was...a tad bit of an unorthodox way to go about things. Some people were just like that.

Hell some of his students and co-workers were like that!

"I see." He said after a few heartbeats of silence, wondering how he could fix that problem for her. "Uh, that aside... I-I had my reasons for wanting you in the Hero course."

"I'm aware of that," Ichigo said gently. "And I know that you're worried. Which is why, I've thought about it a bit and have decided that I'll allow you to place me in the Hero course for...two or three months. As a sort of trial run." He sucked in a breath and looked at her as if she'd just handed him something amazing. It was weird. And she felt the nearly overwhelming impulse to reach out and jab him in the shoulder real quick just to wipe that freaking _delighted_ look off of his face. "Just to see how things go. If by the end of that time I'm doing a bit better with my depression and stuff, and still don't want to be there-"

"I'll move you to another course!" He nearly shouted at her in excitement as he grabbed her hands and held them tightly. "You won't regret it, my girl! I promise!" He said happily while she squirmed and tried to jerk her hands free of his grasp. But _dammit_ it was like he'd plastered his palms in super glue!

_"Let go of my hands already!"_

"Oh right." He said as he automatically released her and nearly sent her sprawling back over the arm of the couch and onto the floor. Luckily she only managed to fall back a little bit before he grabbed her and pulled her upright before she fell.

"Now that that's settled," Ichigo muttered before then reaching out and taking hold of one of his ears in a vicious grasp and pulling him over a little bit while he yelped and flailed for a second. "Why did you not mention the holiday coming up? Do you know how pissed upset I was by the fact that no one even mentioned it to me? _I almost cried, you jerk!_ " She growled at him before finally letting go of his ear and letting him sit back up straight.

She glared at him while he rubbed his now red and very sore ear and frowned as he said lamely.

"I didn't want to upset you."

"Well you did anyways."

"I can tell." He said quietly before then asking in vague alarm, "Is my ear bleeding? It feels like it's bleeding."

"Your ear is fine."

"B-But what if it falls off?"

"I can rip it off for you if you want."

"No!" He nearly shouted as he leaned as far away from her as he could and said, "I like my ears where they are, thank you very much."

Ichigo shrugged and then said. "So tell me about the holiday. I was told that it's something like a combo of Thanksgiving and Christmas. But I need to know more."

"I-I wasn't really planning to celebrate it this year because-" He paused and looked pointedly at her. As if to say, 'I wanted to give you some time and let you adapt first.'

Which was both weirdly nice and utterly stupid of him. Though she didn't bother to tell him he was an idiot. She somehow knew that he already got the hint already before saying.

"Well you _should_ celebrate it. It's your holiday. And you never know if you'll have the chance to do it again next year."

"I didn't think that you would appreciate the festivities. What with...everything that has happened to you. I didn't want to make you sadder because of the reminder of what you've lost."

"That's sweet of you. But...if my presence bothers you so much- then just leave me here. I can go without company for a few-"

"No. Absolutely not." He growled at her. She blinked at him and cocked her head a little bit as he went on to say, "I wouldn't leave you alone. Especially not on a holiday meant to be shared with family and friends. Not when you've lost _everyone_. It would be cruel. Besides, I can stand to not celebrate this year."

He smiled at her as if it was the end of the conversation and she quickly jabbed him in the side with her index finger. He jumped nearly a foot in the air before jumping up off of the couch with his hands covering both of his ears in an effort to protect them from another grab.

She had to motion with her hands for him to drop his own away from his ears so that he could hear her. He hesitated for a moment before finally dropping them so that he could hear her say. "Your celebrating. End of discussion."

"B-But-"

"Don't bother to argue with me, you won't win." She warned him in a slightly teasing tone that had him relaxing as a small chuckle escaped him.

"No, I don't suppose that I will. What was it that you needed to know?"

Ichigo began to tick a few things off on her fingers. "Where do you usually go? Who did you plan to take with you this time? Gift ideas. Cook books, do you have some that I can look through? Have you finished up all of your holiday shopping? Is the kitchen stocked with everything for your dinner?"

By the time she finally stopped to take a breath Toshinori felt like his head was spinning. It took him a moment to settle himself down so that he could answer her.

"The mountains outside of the city. I have a nice spacious log cabin there that I sometimes retreat to if I need a break. It's a good few hours away from the city, and aside from the electricity, running water and a TV and vast movie collection. There's really no entertainment at all. It's nice and quiet. So I tend to like going there for the holidays."

"And?"

His lips twitched a bit in amusement. "I was going to have my former master come with me. He's an old man and hasn't any family left. So it's good to get him out around this time of the year. I was also going to take young Todoroki, and Midoriya. And I was also going to ask an old friend from the police force to join me this year."

"Then do it. Call all of them and let them know that the party is back on."

"I will." He promised her before then saying.

"Don't worry about getting anyone any gifts this time, we're more than happy just to have you spend the holiday with us." She made a funny sound but didn't really protest. She already had a few ideas for gifts just in case he wasn't any help to her suggestion-wise. "I do have some cook books." He looked away from her for a moment to scan the book shelves across the room with a small frown. "They're somewhere. So I'll have to dig them out later."

"I'll have to swing by a store on my way out of the city since there's no chance of getting any deliveries at the cabin. I usually bring several coolers full of dry ice to keep everything cool until we get there. But young Todoroki has been kind enough to offer his ice quirk for the job. But I plan to have all kinds of foods and snacks and goodies for everyone."

"I have finished all of my holiday shopping. I actually finished it up just before you got out of the hospital." He got up and quickly moved so that he was in his bedroom where she could hear him doing something for a few minutes before coming back into the living room with at least a dozen or so large bags and colorfully wrapped gifts that he set on the coffee table next to her.

She stared at them for all of two seconds before realizing that _all_ of them had her name on them.

"What the-"

"I got them once I was sure that you'd be staying with me." He said softly as he reached out to pick up one of the small packages in one of the bags and looked it over for a second before handing it to her.

"I got about three or so years worth for nearly every holiday imaginable. This one, Christmas, White Day, and even some for your birthday. It's not really much, but- I wanted you to feel included in everything no matter how bad things might get in the future. But I also wanted to be considerate of your feelings concerning your losses and didn't want to overwhelm you."

Feeling her fingers slowly curl around the present, he smiled and then said. "I might have gone overboard a bit. But I hope that you like them anyways. Go ahead and open that one. It's the one that I feel the most proud of."

She frowned at him for a second and then slowly did as he told her and peeled the wrapping paper off, taking a second to remove the bow and place it in her head as she did so.

Once the paper was off of the box, she set it aside and then pulled the lid off of the box and stared at the piece of jewelry inside. It was pretty, and tasteful. Though maybe a bit more expensive than she might of liked.

She wasn't generally much of a jewelry girl. In fact she usually tended to avoid it as if it had the plague or something but this piece was... _stunning_ even to someone like her.

The piece consisted of an oval shaped cluster pendant of tiny light colored emeralds surrounding a fiery opal on a slender omega chain. Reaching out, she took hold of the chain and lifted the necklace up so that she could see it better.

"I got that because the emeralds match the color of your eyes just as much as they match the fire in the opal. I thought it would be a nice piece for you to have, you know. Just in case there were formal events and you needed something breathtaking besides a dress to wear. But if you don't like it, I'll understand and will return it."

"No, it's...nice. Thank you."

"Do you want to put it on?"

She hesitated wondering if the slight weight of the necklace around her throat would trigger a panic attack but eventually decided that it was much to small to trigger anything and slowly undid the clasp and put in on. Once she had it in place, she wrapped her fingers around it and toyed with it for a moment before finally dropping her hand and asking him how it looked.

What she got in response to her question was a blinding flash of light that made her see black spots as he took her picture and a pleased sounding, "Pretty!" as he did god knew what with the pic on his phone.

That seemed to be the end of the conversation for the time being. Which was perfect to her. Especially since she managed to walk herself into a doorframe because it took her vision nearly five minutes to totally clear. After which her guardian decided to announce that they would be leaving for the cabin sometime in the morning.

All she could think was, _God help me..._


	19. Chapter 19

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We get to see a slightly mean side of ichigo in this chap. but it should still be fun, after all, she's locked in a car with some other people. 
> 
> and long road trips can be such a pain depending on who's accompanying you.

* * *

She sort of felt stupid for hoping that everything would go well once it was time to leave the next morning. Truly she did. And if she was typically a violent natured person- she probably would have smacked the _bejesus_ out of her guardian for not at least having the decency to tell his former master about her before hand.

Meeting Torino Sorahiko was weird.

The guy didn't seem all that pleased to have been dragged out of bed at the ass crack of dawn to begin with. And wasn't exactly _shy_ about voicing his displeasure to her guardian while he carried the old man's bags to the vehicle that he'd borrowed for their trip, and started to load them into the back, before finally deciding to introduce her to the man.

"Ah, master I have something of a surprise for you." He said as he closed the back of the vehicle once the bags were packed away along with everyone else's. "I've become the legal guardian of the young lady going on the trip with us. Her name is Ichigo." Toshinori said as he quickly rushed over to her side of the car and dragged her out of it so that the elder could see her better.

Once she was out in the open, she tried to be polite. Truly she did. But the man had the manners of a rabid hyena pushing a hundred. Honestly he had a surlier temperament than Renji, Ikakku and Kenpachi combined.

As it was the man was looking at her as if she were a piece of meat that he couldn't seem to decide if he should _like_ or outright _hate_ the cut of. Which was only a tad bit disgruntling to her since she was fairly used to seeing that specific look of disdain on people's faces whenever they looked at her as if she were a bug.

Finally he seemed to come to a decision and nodded his head silently as he said, "Meh, you'll do I guess." Which was quickly followed by him dropping his cane and then attempting to punch her.

She reacted so quickly that he didn't even have time to follow through with it, much less track her movement before she was behind him with one hand resting on his nape and the other firmly grasping his wrist.

She was careful to keep her grip loose enough to not hurt him, but still firm enough to feel somewhat threatening to him. And was satisfied to see the look of shock on not _just_ his face.

But the looks of slack jawed disbelief on their other companions faces as well.

Her guardian's face alone was not only hilariously funny, but the total look of horror that flitted across his features was enough to make her grin at the shock value of the situation.

Even she was intelligent enough to know that he'd worried that the old man would _try_ something. She had known that it was a very real possibility when he'd mentioned the old man had a very distinctive, _crotchety_ personality. He'd even mentioned that the man seemed to like terrorizing kids.

Not all of them mind you, but usually the ones that had anything to do with _him_.

So naturally she'd rolled her eyes and decided to see what was going to happen before she judged anyone too harshly. After all, she knew that old people were difficult.

She'd dealt with some of the oldest and most crotchety people in existence! She could handle _one_ measly little old man. It couldn't possibly be that hard to deal with his antics. At first glance he literally seemed to stink of death. So both feet were technically in the grave already.

Still...she decided to reserve the right to kick the shit out of him if he pushed her too far. She even silently promised not to like it any. What with it technically being elder abuse and all. But she also resolved herself to at least _plant_ a knife on him and make it look like self defense first.

If only to ease her conscience a little bit about the whole 'elder abuse' thing.

The old man gave her an side eyed look that was positively venomous. Obviously not liking the fact that she'd managed to get the best of him.

She gave him a smug grin and he let out a growl and then tried to free himself. It didn't work out the way that he wanted, because she was both holding onto him tightly enough to prevent it and earning more growls, snarls, and even a few really colorful- and inventive curses pat at her.

All of which had her guardian _squawking_ and finally shaking himself out of his stupor enough to scramble over to them and separate the irate man from her before he really got pissed.

He got hit a couple of times for his efforts before Ichigo had had enough of the old man's tantrum and walked over and smoothly took him from her guardian and then unceremoniously tossed him into the back of the vehicle. He hit the opposite side of it with a dull thud and she slammed the door in his face before he had the chance to truly scramble back out and then turned a baleful look to her guardian and growled, "Get. In. Now."

Her guardian literally leaped to do her bidding after seeing how she'd handled his former master while their other companions waited patiently for them to rejoin them and get the trip started.

* * *

The first hour or so of the trip was spent in relative silence aside from the police officer- what was his name again? Momosa? Paprika? Ah, that was it. Naomasa!- took the time to catch up a bit. Their chatter tended to drown out everything including the occasional nervous squeaks and squawks of the other two kids sitting in the back with the old man.

Whom was apparently as belligerent as ever seeing as he was currently scaring them.

That and he'd been using a straw to spit spit wads at the back of her head. Which was really easier said than done since she could literally sense what he was doing and dodge them.

Still, it made for an interesting first part of the trip.

Between the old man and her trying to take each other out. The other two boys staying weirdly quiet. And her guardian and his police friend chattering away things were certainly getting interesting for her.

By the second part of the trip, they'd his a gas station for a bathroom break and to grab little snacks and even some drinks to tide them over until the next stop or so. Ichigo had just stepped outside of the station with her small bag of wonders and caught the old man tottering his way back to the car slowly.

Grinning maliciously, she took the straw that she'd grabbed from inside of the station for one of her drinks and quickly rolled a small piece of torn up paper into a ball, put it into her mouth, and then while she was wetting it she also took a minute amount of her spiritual pressure and forced it into the small wad and then put the straw to her mouth and took aim.

Honest to god she wasn't trying to kill the guy. He was a jerk sure, but not one that deserved to die. She just wanted to put a little bit of fear into him. Ya know?

A healthy- yet _fearful_ dose- of respect of others was good for a person. It usually helped her with people. Especially if they generally feared for their lives after incurring her wrath.

So she should have known that something like _this_ was going to happen. Especially once she got her spiritual pressure involved in her little immature tiff with the guy.

The fact that her spit wad hit the ground at his feet and _blew_ up the concrete there and sent the old man flying as if a fucking meteor had just crashed to the ground had absolutely nothing to do with it.

But seeing him shit his pants was definitely pretty funny.

Even if everyone else around the gas station thought that a bomb had just gone off and ran away in abject terror while she quickly ditched her straw, and tried to look as innocent as possible for someone who was trying desperately _not_ to laugh.

Needless to say things weren't very quiet once they were back on the road again. Nobody said anything at all about the incident back at the gas station. And Ichigo certainly wasn't going to give herself away as the person _responsible_ for what had happened by opening her mouth.

She knew better than to tell on herself. And she managed to keep her silence, admirably up until they finally reached the cabin.


	20. Chapter 20

The view from the cabin was nothing short of an absolutely breathtaking sight to behold.

In fact the very sight of the scenery made Ichigo's palms _itch_ to get her hands on her pencils and sketch pad. Thankfully, she'd thought that this might happen since mountains usually had some really nice scenery and had had the foresight to pack them just in case she saw something particularly inspiring.

They'd pulled up to the cabin close to an hour ago and she'd just finished up putting her bag in her bedroom when she'd decided to step outside and look around her new surroundings a bit.

She could hear everyone moving around inside of the cabin in a frantic flurry of activity that was divided between unpacking, settling, and getting comfortable. While her guardian went from room to room and asked everyone what sort of goodies they wanted him to get them from the grocery store.

Since he still needed to go by one and get their food for the holiday feast and all. Otherwise they'd probably end up eating the old man or trying to run down some squirrels or something.

The mere thought of her companions even attempting to try and chase the furry tree climbing nuisance's made her lips twitch in amusement.

It was a funny thought.

Though not nearly as funny as making that damned grouchy old goat shit himself.

Hearing the door to the cabin open behind her, she heard her guardian grumbling as he stepped outside and then closed the door behind him before spying her. "Ah! There you are my girl," He said as he meandered over to her and paused a couple of inches from her. "I see that you're taking in the view."

"Yeah. It's nice."

His lips curved up into a warm smile before he asked, "Thinking of trying your hand at drawing it?"

"More or less. My hands have practically been itching to unpack my sketch pad and pencils."

"Then why don't you?"

"I'll have some time to do it later on. There's other things to do right now."

He hummed, wondering what she meant and then asked her what she wanted him to pick up for her to snack on while they were there. She didn't know much about what the stores around here carried so she couldn't really give him any answer. And instead told him that she'd go with him.

He balked at first, not really knowing what she was planning until she mentioned that she'd like to see if she could find some stuff for some homemade cookies and pies and side dishes to the turkey dinner. At hearing this, his reluctance melted away and he quickly ushered her to the car and climbed in.

The trip to the store took about an hour or so due to the fact that the mountains had no set speed limit and he liked to drive fast-ish along the winding curves and such. Sure he slowed a bit when taking specific areas, but that was only so that he didn't wreck.

After all, even she could see that some of those curved dirt roads were downright treacherous. Still, they made it down the mountain safely enough.

_Thank god._

The second that he parked the car in the local grocery story parking lot, Ichigo pretty much threw herself out of the vehicle and kissed the pavement in relief while her guardian climbed out of the car and shut the door behind him and cast a strange look her way.

"Are you done with the dramatics?"

"Yes. For now," Ichigo hissed a little bit as she got back to her feet and then tacked on. "But you're sort of a sucky driver."

He gave her a lopsided grin, apparently amused that she thought he was a sucky driver when she'd never ridden in a vehicle with Gran Torino. She scowled at him as she walked by him to go into the store and heard him give a soft chuckle while he fell into step behind her.

The store was one of those nice novelty grocery stores that you can't find anywhere _but_ in the mountains. The second that they walked in, Ichigo could smell a variety of organic things. Veggies, fruits, some very strong scented honey- and some other things that confused the hell out of her.

So much so that she actually took a step back towards the door and bumped into her guardian's front while he was attempting to separate a couple of buggy's.

He paused and gave her a startled look as she brought a hand up to her nose and pinched her nostrils closed for a moment in an effort to stop the sudden upset churning of her stomach that made her mouth water like she were about to start dry heaving right there.

_What the hell was that?_ She wondered in puzzlement as she kept her hand in place for a few more seconds when she felt her guardian place a large hand on one of her slender shoulders.

"Ichigo?" Toshinori said gently as he took in how pale suddenly she looked.

It was almost as if she'd just seen a ghost or something. And the fact that she was pinching her nose meant that something that she smelled in the store was upsetting her.

"Are you okay?"

She took a moment longer than he expected to reply to his question, and once she did, he could tell that she was trying to figure out what exactly had just happened, herself.

"I'm okay." She said. Not bothering to look at him as she scanned the store with her eyes in a slightly wary manner before finally dropping her hand away from her face and sniffing the air for a second.

After seeming to _not_ find whatever had started to set her off, she took a deep breath and then gave him a tight lipped smile in hopes that it would reassure him that she really was fine- which it didn't- and then meandered off to start looking around.

Leaving him to wonder if maybe she'd been about to have an anxiety attack or if maybe something had triggered her PTSD for a moment there. It had been obvious that she'd been struggling with _something_.

He just wished that he knew _what_ it was so that he could help her.

Sighing once he saw her meander off down a food isle more than forty feet away- he went back to separating the two buggies and then once that was done, he decided to go see if he could find a nice big, fat turkey.

He managed to find a nice twenty seven pound turkey, a ten pound ham, and some other odds and ends. Like stuff for green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, homemade soups, corn bread, some dinner rolls, hot chocolate, and little marshmallows to put in it.

Once he finished up collecting everything that he could think of, he went to find Ichigo.

And after doing some semi strenuous searching of the store isles finally found her sitting on the floor in one of them with small pile of stuff sitting next to her.

She had a small box in her hand and seemed to be reading the back of it when he walked up and took a quick once over of what she had sitting next to her and cocked his head.

She had definitely been looking for stuff to make cookies and pies.

He could tell by the various stuff in her small pile. Cranberries, spices, milk, eggs, flour, baking soda, white and dark chocolate chips, pie crusts, white and brown sugar- fruits, glazes, four squeeze bottles of caramel and fudge, some packs of cream cheese, vanilla extract, orange extract, peppermint extract, ect. She'd even grabbed a couple of different flavored pudding boxes.

All in all, it looked as if she had quite a bit to make all of her cookies and pies. And he was _beyond_ excited to try some more of her cooking.

"Did you find everything that you need to fix your stuff?" He asked curiously.

Ichigo's eyes flickered from the small box in her hand to his face. "I think so." She said as she set the box down and then began to collect the stuff that she'd got off of the floor and set them in the buggy.

Toshinori helped her since it would take less time to do so than just standing there and waiting on her. Plus, he was an old fashioned gentleman at heart and didn't like the fact that she would have had to collect everything alone if he were _anyone_ else.

Young people nowadays simply didn't have nice manners like they used to.

Once they'd put the last of the items in the buggy, he turned his focus back to her. "Did you need to get anything else? I didn't pack any of your macha tea or anything before we left."

"No. I'll be fine with whatever is back at the cabin."

"So you plan to drink spider webs?"

"Huh?"

"Spider webs, Ichigo. I literally haven't been to the cabin since either last year or the year before. I can't really recall right. All I know is that aside from water-" That was about as far as he got in his explanation before she scampered off to grab her precious macha tea and what looked like some coffee and a few other tea choices.

She dumped them in the buggy as he chortled and shook his head at her while she gave him a slightly peeved look.

"You could have said something sooner."

"I could have. But what is the fun in that?" He said with a grin.

She huffed and mumbled something underneath her breath about an 'act of god' and 'taking him out with a loogie'. Both of which were somewhat confusing to him as they walked side by side up to the register to pay for their things.

* * *

They were both outside loading the car with their things when someone, an guy in his thirties walked up to them with some flyers with a nine year old kid's face on it. And handed one of them to Toshinori and politely told them that if they had any info about the child's whereabouts, to please contact the number printed on the flyer.

Something akin to pain, worry, or deeply rooted concern flickered across his expression as he stared down at the flyer for a moment.

Ichigo was quiet as she studied him. Knowing that as someone who prided himself on being a Pro-hero- seeing a missing person's flyer must be difficult for him. But even so, even she knew that you couldn't save everyone.

He didn't snap out of it until she reached out and carefully took the flyer from his hands. And even then, it was like he wasn't all there. Not really anyways.

She could tell that he felt torn up about not doing anything about the kid missing and sighed as she looked at the paper.

The kid had been missing for three days. Snatched up from a bus stop after getting off of a school bus several miles away from their current location. No one had seen anything. No one had heard anything either.

"That poor boy. It will be a miracle if anyone finds him alive." Toshinori said quietly, his heart already _aching_ for the kid and distraught his family.

Ichigo didn't say anything since she could sense things. But she was fairly certain that the boy was still alive since she could practically hear his jumbled and fearful thoughts now that she was focusing on it. And knew that she couldn't just stand there and do _nothing_.

It would be not only wrong, but cruel to allow the boy to die where he was. All alone and afraid. Instead of living his life with his parents and growing up one day.

Besides, as much as she hated playing the hero- she figured that she could do it. Just this once.

Resigning herself to the amount of unwanted attention that she was sure to get from this was a tad bit more _difficult_ than she liked. After all, she didn't want to be all that noticed by anyone. She didn't want or need to be thrust into the limelight, didn't want to answer any questions that could cause her problems in the near future either.

And doing this was likely to get her far more havoc than she would have initially bargained for.

But once she finally made up her mind, she was set to go.

"He's alive. But no one will find him in time."

Toshinori started a little bit at her words, even he knew that despite the small time frame that the boy had been missing, chances of finding him became slimmer and slimmer as more time passed. Especially since specific criminals tended to kill their prisoners quickly, depending on certain factors. And while he didn't actually know if the boy had actually been kidnapped or not. Much less, was being held anywhere by someone...

So he was about to ask her how she could possibly _know_ that he was still alive and that no one would find him in time when she disappeared on him.

All he'd done was turn his head to ask her _why_ she believed that he was still alive in the first place, and the second that his head was turned and his mouth opened, _poof!_

She was fucking gone!

It took him a moment to register this fact. And by the time he started to look around and sort of freak out, she suddenly reappeared again eliciting a startled scream from him because it was like she _literally_ appeared out of thin air.

But before he could chew her out for scaring him by doing... _whatever_ she'd just done, he heard a small whimper and looked down uncomprehending at the dirty, bruised, and scratched up face of the little boy who's picture had been on the flyer and felt his jaw drop open a little bit.

He couldn't even manage to say anything to her once he realized what she'd done!

Walking over to him, she practically thrust the little boy into his chest and waited for him to take possession of him as she said, "He's cold. Hold him while I call the phone number and let someone know that he's been found." And then stuck her hand into his pants pocket and fished his phone out and then walked away from him.

Leaving him and the boy to both stare at each other, wide eyed.


	21. Chapter 21

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've started to drop vague hints of something that I'm curious to see if anyone catches onto.

* * *

Toshinori couldn't help the way that his eyes kept alternating between staring at the nine year old boy in his arms and Ichigo. He just couldn't seem to help it any. His thoughts were all jumbled, and he felt...weirdly _stupefied_ and just a smidgen upset by the events that were currently unfolding around him.

For someone who seemed to be so emotionally and mentally _unstable_ \- his girl also seemed to be an honest to god pro at handling the police. Almost as if she'd been had to do it a number of times before and understood how things went intimately. Which was more than just a tad bit telling about her past.

Though he didn't want to think on that right this moment.

She was currently surrounded by officers, some local news reporters, and even a few stray people who happened to be passing by and had come over to see what was going on- being asked all kinds of questions.

How did she find the boy?

Which Toshinori felt was an _excellent_ question. But was disappointed when she side stepped it and ignored it in leu of answering someone else's question.

Where did she find him?

Another good question. _Where?_ And she gave some vague details about the kid being held in a secret room underneath someone's basement.

Which was interesting, he supposed. But it didn't really answer the question much. He supposed that she was sticking to the vague stuff for now because she probably didn't know the area well at all. After all, he had no way of knowing if she'd ever been through the town _before_ now.

Had she run into the person responsible for taking him?

Toshinori's fingers flexed and tightened a little bit around the boy, as anger surged through him, making the kid let out a loud whine that had the man's fingers automatically loosening again as he tried to sooth the boy and even apologized for holding him too hard. He hadn't meant to squeeze him like that. But he hadn't been able to help it any.

The thought of Ichigo running into the person/person's responsible for the boy's kidnapping didn't sit well with him. The fact that she could have run into them and had to fight them or something sat even worse with him.

Naturally Ichigo had made sure _not_ to mention any confrontation with the perp/perps, however produced a picture that she'd tucked inside of her jean pocket of the person/persons responsible for the crime. Or at the very least someone who knew them.

Wasn't she scared?

That was the multi million dollar question in Toshinori's mind. Wasn't she scared to have possibly incurred the wrath of some sick _psycho_?

She smiled prettily for the camera and deadpanned a sickly sweet sounding 'no' that had the man pretty much agreeing with her there. Ichigo may have her issues, but she wasn't afraid of much of anything from what he'd been able to tell from his observations of her so far.

Huffing from the back of the ambulance while some medics jumped out to check the boy over for any injury that he might have sustained during his three days missing.

Toshi himself- after managing to fix his hair like that of his hero alter ego to protect what little bit of anonymity he had- was presently being detained since the boy had attached himself to him like a tiny little leech after realizing _who_ he was attached to and was refusing to let go without throwing a screaming fit.

It wasn't the boys fault, he knew. The kid was still scared nearly petrified by what had happened to him and had simply latched onto the biggest and strongest person present in the hopes of feeling safe again.

But the last screaming fit that the boy had gone into after being pried off of him had had Toshinori nearly jumping out of his skin while looking for the _source_ or _reason_ for all the boy's damned screaming.

So...here he was, basically being held hostage by a terrified nine year old. Which was frustrating to him. Especially with his attention elsewhere since he was trying to _listen_ to everything that Ichigo was being asked as well as her carefully worded replies.

He still didn't know how she'd managed to find the boy in the first place. Much less how she had dealt with the person/person's who'd had him. But he was slightly _irked_ that she'd done something so stupid without saying something to him first.

After all, he was a Pro-hero. He could have gone with her to make sure that she didn't get into anything that she couldn't get out of without some sort of backup.

For gods sake! He hadn't even had a chance to check her over for injuries before she'd handed the boy to him and walked off!

All he knew was that at this rate, they weren't going to get back to the cabin for a good long while. And there were perishables in the car in desperate need of a fridge or freezer.

All in all he was starting to worry that he and everyone else were going to be suffering from a bad case of food poisoning this year. Not only that but he was also worried about what was going to happen when Ichigo's face wound up all over the news in affiliation with him.

He didn't have his PR team on standby to do any damage control at the moment. Because he'd honestly thought that he could leave the city without _something_ happening for once. So he could only imagine what sort of rumors would start circulating about her.

Or even the both of them unless he stepped in to give the reporters something to chew on. Add to the fact that she wasn't a hero and had no provisional license at all. And she could really get into trouble.

_Agh!_ Nezu was going to chew him out later via text message, he just knew it. Not to mention what Shota was going to say once he found out. Undoubtedly there would also be what his master and Naomasa would also have to say to him once they found out about this- this _debacle_ as well.

Finally the medics gave the boy something to keep him calm so that they could take him to the hospital where his parents were waiting to see him and pried him off of Toshinori and finally allowed him to leave. The second that he was free, he quickly jumped out of the back of the ambulance and waved as the back was closed up and the vehicle started moving away.

He took a moment to say a private prayer of thanks that the boy was okay and then turned to his next task. Extracting his girl from the police and local news reporters before too much damage was done.

* * *

The reporters were getting pushy with her when her guardian finally walked up to intervein. And the exact second that he reached her side, she was quick to duck almost completely behind him so that she could peek around his large figure and scowl at them all menacingly while he settled a hand on her shoulder and gave it a slight squeeze.

"Hello everyone, how are you today?" He said politely while her scowl intensified.

_"All Might!"_ The reporters all shouted at once before quickly clamoring to see if he had had anything to do with the boy's rescue.

After all, the man was the biggest thing to ever hit Japan's Pro-hero circuit. Having a story about him would probably get them better ratings than some random kid saving a kidnap victim.

"All Might! There have been rumors lately about some retired pro-heroes in the area that have had family and friends go missing in the past few years," Toshinori kept his smile in place though the reporter's words had the gears in his head turning at a rapid pace as the reporter finally got to the point. "Did the request from the local hero office finally reach you? Are you going to help aid in the rescue and retrieval of the retired heroes missing family and friends?"

He was quiet for a moment as he mulled over the questions. After all, he hadn't heard- and couldn't recall anything about a request from former hero's for help. But if the reporter's information was accurate then someone at his office was obviously turning the people away for some reason.

The main question right now was _why_?

"Actually, I haven't heard or gotten anything about any requests from retired former hero's asking for help. I was just in the area for the holiday-"

"Does that mean that you aren't going to help with the rescue or retrieval efforts?"

"I never said that." He was quick to cut the reporter off. Not liking the fact that they were trying to make him look as if he were ignoring the request for aid for his fellow heroes. "If the former heroes truly need my help, then I _will_ help them. I've never been the type of man that could walk away from someone in need before and I don't plan to start now."

"I'm sure that the local retired heroes will be pleased to know that, All Might." The reporter said before then asking, "Did you have anything to do with Jamie Aldren's rescue today?"

"No. The boy's rescue is entirely the young lady's work." He said, hoping to manage to keep Ichigo's name out of things.

"And what is the young lady's name? She's refused to give it to us so far."

"Well, she probably doesn't want her name mentioned for anonymity's sake. She's...very shy like that."

He heard a loud gagging sound behind him and thought that Ichigo might be making faces at the reporter when someone yelped and he turned his head to see her vomiting several feet away while trying to get one of the camera men to leave her alone.

"Ichigo!" He nearly shouted in alarm- accidentally giving the reporter her name as he turned and quickly walked over to her, taking a moment to remove the camera man from her personal bubble with a warning look that sent the man scampering back to his friends while he rubbed her back and tried to figure out what had made her sick.

To his knowledge she had been feeling fine a few minutes ago. Unless she'd been hiding the fact that something was wrong from him this whole time.

"My girl-"

"I'm okay." She rasped after spitting a little bit. She was still doubled over, so he couldn't see her face. So he couldn't really tell if she was being honest or not. "I'm okay. I just...got really, really dizzy all of a sudden and it made me-" She didn't have to finish her sentence for him to get it.

Toshinori may not be the smartest man who'd ever lived but he was certainly quick to catch onto things.

"When you went to save the boy, did you hit your head or get hit?"

"No." She rasped out in an annoyed tone that he knew all to well.

"You weren't hurt at all?"

"No."

"Alright. Next question, have you been feeling sick lately?"

"J-Just earlier today. When we first got here to get the food." She said as she finally straightened up a little bit and looked at him. He took a moment to feel her forehead to make sure that she wasn't actually sick. And was more than a little bit relieved when she didn't feel feverish.

Sighing, he gave her a small smile and then bent down a little bit and scooped her up.

She huffed quietly and grumbled at being 'toted around like a frigging teacup sized dog all the damned time', but otherwise didn't really react as he made excuses for them both to the reporters and then carried her over to the car and set her down in her seat on the passenger side and then walked over to the other side and climbed in.

It was past time for them to have returned from their errand and the others would be looking for them.


	22. Chapter 22

* * *

The moment that Toshinori pulled up to the cabin again, Ichigo was already flinging herself out of the car to dry heave on the ground while he parked it and quickly climbed out to see if she was okay.

"Ichigo!" He moved closer so that he could see her better. And winced a little bit in sympathy as she dry heaved again.

She sounded as if she were dying to him. Add the fact that she was actually _crying_ to the mix and he felt really, really bad for her. Hunkering down next to her, he rubbed her back some more and made sure to pull her long hair back from her face so that she didn't accidentally get vomit in it and just sat there trying to be supportive when the cabin door opened and Izuku and his master stepped outside.

"All Might, your finally back!" Izuku sounded really happy to see him. His master must have been giving the poor boy a hard time while he'd been away.

"Did you get lost?" His master called out.

"No."

"Then what took ya so long to get back, boy? I can't take a nap until- _Ack!_ " Toshinori had stopped paying attention to whether or not Ichigo was still dry heaving beside him when his master started talking.

So it really came as a surprise to him when a pinecone came out of absolutely nowhere and _smacked_ the old man hard enough to make him stumble and fall off of the porch. And right into his terribly neglected and somewhat dead rose bushes, with an indignant squawk.

_Awesome._ He thought sarcastically while Izuku tried to fish the old man out of the bushes before he got scratched up too badly while Toshi watched.

The second that Izuku had his master up and out of the bushes the old man started screaming like a lunatic. "What's with the wilderness and the universe conspiring to kill me?!"

Izuku and Toshinori both _flinched_ at the volume of elder's voice.

It was right about then when Ichigo finally managed to pull herself together enough to try and get up. She had to reach out to grab Toshi's shirt sleeve in her hand and gave it a small tug to get his attention again, but once she'd achieved that- he was quick to slip an arm around her and helped her up.

Once she was on her feet again, he called out to Izuku to come and help her inside and get her settled on the couch with a couple of pillows, a blanket and maybe a trash can too. The teen nodded his head in understanding and then wrapped an arm around her waist and led her back to the cabin, worriedly chattering her ear off while Toshinori busied himself with emptying the food out of the car.

* * *

Ichigo wasn't really sure how she was supposed to act around everyone once she was on the couch. Izuku was fluffing up one of the pillows that he'd grabbed from...well, she had no idea where he'd gotten the stupid things. While Shoto and Naomasa were both playing each other with a chess set.

So far Shoto was winning.

But Naomasa was frustrated and apparently a sore loser.

He pulled a, _'Look it's Elvis'_ , sort of distraction on the red and white haired teen at least once. And then promptly knocked the board off of the coffee table when the boy was looking away.

Ichigo watched, wondering idly if there was going to be a fist fight between the two once the boy turned back around to check the board and saw the utter mess that it had become. While Izuku finally finished fluffing her pillow and then stuffed it behind her with a sunny smile.

"There. All nice and fluffed." He looked so proud of himself for fluffing the pillow that Ichigo couldn't help but draw some parallels between him and Orihime.

Especially since it was something that Orihime would do and look very proud of accomplishing since she had that bizarre 'uselessness' complex or hers.

It occurred to her that maybe Izuku was her own unique _new_ and upgraded version of Orihime as the teen fussed with the blanket that he'd also grabbed from who-knew-where, and started to shake it out so that he could drape it over her when her guardian came meandering out of the kitchen with a mug of something.

He set the mug down next to her and then checked on her for a moment. Asking her if she was still feeling nauseous any.

She wasn't at the moment, so she was hoping that it was just a freak occurrence. But at the same time, she also knew not to push herself needlessly as the man explained that he'd made her some tea to help settle her stomach and would be fixing her some soup to eat for later.

The holiday was tomorrow so there was no reason why she couldn't rest up today.

After that, he meandered back into the kitchen and left her at the mercy of their other companions. Izuku tended to hover and fret if she so much as moved too much to get comfortable. She figured that out early on when she'd tried to scooch down a bit to rest her back a little bit more comfortably.

While Shoto and Naomasa both restarted their game of chess.

This time Shoto pulled the 'Look, it's Elvis' thing, and even managed to cheat the older man without resorting to knocking the chess board off of the table while she and Izuku watched with somewhat avid interest before he asked her curiously, "Do you play chess?"

She blinked and turned her head to look at him. "No. I used to play when I was younger. But I stopped playing once I took an interest in karate."

"Did you not like the game?"

"I liked the game fine... I just didn't like losing all that well."

Izuku snickered. "Did you throw tantrums like Mr. Naomasa?"

"No. I but I did tend to beat people up _with_ the chess board though." All three males turned their heads to look at her as she quickly tacked on in a defensive tone. "I was ten at the time and those people were utter bullies! I mean, wouldn't you want to crack them over the head too? If they kept grabbing and jerking you into alley's and picking on you for being smarter than them?"

The the exchanged a weirdly relieved look for a moment. But Ichigo was sort of on a roll about her former childhood bullies and wasn't content to just stop there without impressing upon them just how _horrible_ those kids had been.

"And don't even get me started on when they attacked my baby sisters and tried to force one of them off of a train so that she'd be dragged by it by her shirt- I mean, what sort of person does that?! For god's sake Karin could have been killed!"

They all looked at her again, this time with a horrified expression on all three of their faces.

Finally Shoto managed to ask her if her sister was okay after the incident and Ichigo merely told him that her sister had wound up with a broken arm, but aside from that she'd been fine. And while that was nice to hear and all, the three couldn't help but wonder if maybe she had gone after the other kids for hurting her sister.

And if so- they couldn't exactly blame her any.

"How old were your sisters at the time of the incident?" Naomasa asked as he propped his chin in his hand.

"Seven."

"And they were on a train unsupervised?" The man asked in an incredulous tone. "At that age?!"

"After mom died, they had to start using the train to get to and from school unless dad was willing to take them and pick them up. Which was good, but usually didn't work out all that well with his work schedule. And I was usually with them before school and after too, but sometimes I'd get held up by other things."

"So I couldn't always be with them. After that incident occurred, we had some really nice elderly neighbors take up going to and from school with them until they were older. But stuff still tended to happen even then." She paused for a moment before then saying, "One of the neighbors- the old man, I think. Wound up falling onto the train track at one point- and was killed."

Naomasa's face went utterly pale. Izuku and Shoto weren't much better.

"Karin and Yuzu weren't with him at the time. And his death was ruled an accident despite the fact that it seemed as if he'd been pushed by someone. His wife moved away after that and died not too long after. And Yuzu and Karin sometimes would ask myself or our dad if her husband's death was their fault. But they were still pretty young when it happened, so I'm not sure if they really understood what had happened. All I'm sure that they knew was that their new friends were there one day, and gone another."

"Poor things. That must have been traumatizing to you all."

"It upset Yuzu and Karin pretty badly. Even dad was upset about it. He'd really liked the couple. They sometimes offered to babysit me and my sisters when dad had to work across town for a few days at the hospital. They'd never had any kids of their own. So we were the closest to actual children or grandchildren that they ever got. They liked to dote on us whenever we were around."

She had a sad wistful smile on her face as she recalled the elderly couple. And for a moment, she was able to recall them with perfect clarity and forget the fact that they and everyone else was likely gone now.

She felt a large hand gently ruffle her hair and blinked to find her guardian hunkered down next to her.

"They sound like they were wonderful grandparents." He slowly removed his hand from her head and then asked, "Would you like to talk about them some more?"

Ichigo hesitated for a second and then nodded her head and said. "They were _great_ grandparents to us. And we always had such fun visiting them. The old man used to con me into stealing baked goods for him for nickle's and then when his wife found out- there was _no_ loyalty at all from me at that age- I'd throw him to the wolves and run away screaming. And Mrs. Lady-"

"Mrs. Lady?" Her guardian asked curiously.

"I can't really recall their names very well, even now. Names have always been difficult for me to recall no matter who I meet or how memorable the meeting is. So I just started calling them Mr. Man and Mrs. Lady all the time whenever I talk about them now."

"I see." Toshinori said before motioning with his hand and saying, "Alright. Tell us more about Mrs. Lady and Mr. Man then."

"Mrs. Lady was a prankster at heart. She liked pulling jokes on people. And no one was exempt from this. Not me, not my sisters, not even her husband or my dad. In fact she and my dad got into having prank wars while he was working at the clinic. She'd drop by with a grin and walk back out with her skin colored purple and her dentures dyed pink and so on. And dad would sometimes come home looking like he'd gotten into a fight with a weed whacker and an army of garden gnomes."

Toshinori tried hard not to laugh as she told them about what she meant by the whole 'fighting with a weed whacker and an army of garden gnomes' thing.

And he had to say, as far as pranks went her late Mrs. Lady was _deviously_ brilliant.

By the time she finished telling him about the army of garden gnomes that had appeared in masses outside of the clinic where her dad worked, he was laughing so hard that he was crying. He could hear Naomasa and the boys practically howling with laughter too.

Ichigo told them a few more tales of Mrs. Lady's pranks. And Mr. Man's hijinks before she finally sobered up a bit and fell quiet for a moment before then saying, "I think I'm a bit tired now."

He sobered up automatically as he recalled how ill she'd been earlier.

"Of course, my girl. Do you want to rest here or upstairs in your room?

"My room is fine. It would free up the couch for you and the others to use." She said as she slowly uncovered herself and got to her feet. But didn't walk away just yet. First she made sure to grab the garbage can that Izuku had gotten for her to use just in case she started puking again and then took a moment to look at them before saying, "This was fun. But the next time you want Mr. Naomasa's quirk to be put to good use. Try not to be so obvious about it. Okay?"

She gave them all a sweet smile and then turned and walked off, leaving Toshinori sputtering while Naomasa pointed at her back in dismay and got his hand slapped by Shoto. Not once, but three times before finally deciding that he didn't want his hand slapped by the teen again.

"She's a sly one." Gran Torino said as he ambled into the room. He'd watched the whole thing from the doorway and was still trying to pinpoint when she'd figured out Naomasa's quirk was being used. "I'm still trying to figure out when she caught onto you. But for the life of me I can't figure it out."

"Neither can I." Toshinori finally said once he was done sputtering. He settled himself on the couch where she'd previously been sitting with a heavy sigh before asking his friend, "Did she lie about anything?"

"No. Not at all."

" _Well damn_." Toshinori huffed as he laid his head back for a moment and tried to think.

"Why don't you just ask her about her past Toshi-boy? If she's caught on to Naomasa's quirk and _knows_ what it does already then there's no point in pussy footing around anymore. Just ask your questions and hope that she's willing to answer them."

"I'm worried that it might still be too soon to push her for some things. After all, she doesn't know me all that well. She certainly doesn't trust me much." Toshinori said as he lifted his hands to scrub his face before then adding in a sullen tone, "But I have so many questions that I can barely stand it."

"And you think tricking her will help you win her over? When did you become so damned dense boy? Be honest with her! Ask your questions and let her decide if you're worth taking the chance on or not. But stop trying to trick her into dropping her guard and telling you things that she isn't ready to face yet. It'll only cause more harm than good if you don't."

"I know, Gran Torino. _I know_."


	23. Chapter 23

* * *

Toshinori felt just _awful_ about trying to trick Ichigo into telling him more about herself and her past like he had. He felt even worse about recruiting the others to help him. Especially since she didn't really have anyone to talk to all the way up here in the mountains.

And he knew that that must be difficult for her. Most especially now. So to say that he was more than a little bit upset when she finally came back downstairs after resting for a bit, and acted so strangely detached from him and everyone else. As if she wasn't even really alive anymore- what sparkle she'd had in her eyes earlier was utterly gone.

Was just- just plain _wrong_ to him. Mostly because he was worried about the future ramifications of his- er, _their_ actions may have had on her.

But he was nothing but a patient man. _Sort of_.

So he didn't push anymore than he already had and simply watched as Izuku decided to engage her in a chess match. And upon her agreement, jokingly pleaded with her not to beat him up with the board if she lost. It was made of marble and he was pretty sure that being beaten up by it would hurt.

She didn't even crack a smile at the teen's joke. And that was definitely something that she should have either smiled at or deadpanned, "I make no promises." like she usually did.

But no- instead she just...stared at him in that creepy unblinking manner of hers that had Izuku totally floundering within five seconds flat as he tried to get her to help set up the board when Toshinori decided to take pity on the teen and play her himself.

Perhaps if he apologized...then maybe the light in her eyes would return. Just a little bit?

Getting up out of his seat, he set the book that he'd been reading aside and then moved over to stand behind Izuku, and lay his large hands on the boy's shoulders and quietly asked him if he could play a few games with her first.

Izuku, god bless him, was quick to move aside and sit down so that he could observe what strategies they were going to use and seemed utterly content for the moment. So he didn't need to worry about him for now.

Sitting down across from Ichigo, he gave her a warm smile and asked her what color she wanted to use. She grabbed a black piece and held it up for him to see as he set the board up for them both. Once he was finished, he turned the board around so that her pieces were closer to her and then sat there waiting as she seemed to mull over her first move.

She finally made her move, and he smiled and moved one of his knight's. Which turned out to be a _big_ mistake because she not only managed to take his knight but his queen within five moves.

"Play me again?" He asked, hopeful that she wouldn't be able to resist the urge to thoroughly trounce him. He wasn't wrong and resigned himself to getting his ass handed to him for the next few rounds before she finally tired of humiliating him.

She didn't say anything, merely nodded her head and the two of them practically set the board back up in seconds. Toshinori let out a low whistle of appreciation and then quickly set the game up again.

And after about a dozen games or so- he was on the verge of tossing the chess board aside and demanding a rematch via arm wrestling. I mean, what sort of person doesn't even bother to actually play a game? Choosing instead to back someone into a corner and simply overwhelming them?

He wanted to ask _and_ toss the board aside to arm wrestle her.

He knew that it wasn't the smartest or wisest idea in the world since he didn't really know what she could do. But _dammit_ the competitive side of him that hated losing was beginning to rear it's ugly head and that usually gave birth to many of his wild, crazy, and stupid ideas.

Or at least that was what his master usually said it was anyways.

Finally he'd had almost enough and started to fidget. Bouncing one of his legs at a rapid pace in an effort to _not_ do the incredibly stupid thing that he was thinking of.

After all, he still needed to apologize for the other stupid thing that he'd done. But hadn't quite found an opening yet to do so.

Finally he couldn't take it anymore and he smacked the board off of the coffee table and then propped his elbow up on it and looked pointedly at her and wiggled his fingers at her to indicate what he wanted. He could feel his quirk racing through his body, strengthening it as he waited.

He wasn't expecting the light in her eyes to suddenly come back as she perked up noticeably and then moved to do as he wanted. She moved into place and slipped her small hand around his own large one and waited until he gave the word.

He didn't expect to loose at this. In fact he was fairly confident that he'd win. But he wouldn't really mind so much if he didn't. Not if it meant she felt better afterwards.

So it was only natural that he only be a little bit- well okay, a _lot_ fucking freaked out when she managed to not only beat him. But force his entire body down onto the floor when she slammed his knuckles down.

Of course by then everyone else had migrated into the room and was watching with great interest to see what would happen. He was betting that they were all pretty damned shocked to see him lose at arm wrestling of all the stupid things.

But he wasn't done yet. That competitive streak in him reared up again.

"Best out of three?" He asked once he got over the initial shock of losing to her and righted himself again. She beat him another two times. After which he demanded the best out of five. She beat him those times too. After which he demanded the best out of a dozen.

She kicked his ass every single time. But what really seemed to rankle him was the fact that she did it so effortlessly. For god's sake she didn't even break a sweat or exert herself at all!

"How did you do that?" He asked, as he finally got tired of being beaten by her and lay his head down on the table and simply sulked.

"Finally. You decide to straight up ask me something?" Her tone wasn't mean or scathing or anything. But he still wound up blinking at her words, and inwardly _cringing_ a bit before saying,

"Sorry. That was thoughtless of me." He said looking like a kicked puppy.

"Kind of cruel is a more apt description." She said as she reached out and took hold of one of his long blond bangs and laid her head down on the table too.

"I know why you did it." She said gently as she tugged lightly on his hair. Her face several inches from his own. "But you shouldn't resort to trickery when the person that your so curious about has gone through so many things. Trauma is a difficult thing to overcome. So is loss, and depression and all things dark and grim."

"Something tells me that you have a lot of dark and grim stuff that you've experienced."

She didn't bother to mince words any. _"Yeah, I have."_ She said as she took a deep breath before continuing. "I've fought for my life, and my freedom to live however I choose. I've protected myself, my family and friends to the best of my ability. I've won and lost battles. Wars by every definition of the word. Lost so very many that I'm not sure that you'd be able to keep track of them all."

She paused for a moment and then frowned and said. "I can barely keep track of them and I'm the one who _knew_ them all. I've faced off against monsters in human skin. Murderers, maniacs, deranged psychos-" He couldn't trust himself to speak as she said this. He was too concerned that she could shut down again and never open back up to him.

"And all I ever wanted...I mean really, really wanted was to be left alone. To be normal. _Ordinary_ and _powerless_." She took another deep breath and then asked. "Do you understand more now?"

He didn't. But at the same time he _did_ so, so very much.

And his heart ached for her so much that he almost thought that he'd go mad from it.


	24. Chapter 24

* * *

Ichigo didn't say much more aside from that. She still felt drained from being sick earlier. So after giving her guardian a small, wane smile she released the hair that she'd taken possession of and then slowly got up to go to bed.

Her guardian tried to convince her to eat something first, but she wasn't entirely sure that she could at the moment. So she told him to just put some in the fridge for her. She'd either get up around midnight to grab something to prevent her from totally starving to death later. Or she'd eat it before she started cooking in the morning.

She turned to leave when Naomasa stopped her by asking in an slightly alarmed and insistent tone, "The murderers, maniacs, and deranged psychos that you mentioned before. _How old were you when you faced them?_ "

Something about his tone reminded her of Kisuke whenever he got his panties in a bunch about something and would dog her until she listened to him. So she decided to answer him, though it was against her better judgement.

"Twelve, thirteen, fourteen, and the last few when I was between fifteen and sixteen." The look of horrified realization on the man's face was telling.

Apparently it wasn't normal even here for children with quirks to fight against such people without _dying_.

_Lucky me._ She thought as he took a moment to try and pull himself together while Izuku asked the last question of the evening. "Where was your dad? And the heroes who were supposed to help?"

Ichigo didn't really show it, but the question was interesting to her for a multitude of reasons.

In a society where there were so very many heroes and hero based work throughout the world... Would they even believe her if she told them there there was _no_ such thing back home? Would they even really understand the consequences of her answering the question?

She couldn't help but wonder about that in depth a bit.

Finally she turned and looked at Izuku and said, "My dad was a smart guy, he knew what was going on all that time. He knew that when I disappeared for weeks and weeks on end- or even months without calling or writing- that something big was happening and he couldn't afford to distract me for any reason. He also knew that it was a very real possibility that I would never come home. He didn't get overly protective. He _couldn't_. Instead he'd sit at home and go about his usual routine for my younger sisters sake. And wait."

Izuku opened his mouth to say or ask something else. But she wasn't done speaking yet and motioned with her hand to shut up. His mouth snapped closed so fast it was a wonder that he didn't chip a tooth or at the very least bite his tongue.

"The only times my dad ever left home or got involved in what I was doing, was when I was mangled and beaten so damned bad that I had to be pieced back together one limb or organ at a time. I've lost fingers, toes, arms and legs, my eyes, my spleen, my stomach, a lung, one of my ovaries and kidneys- my heart has literally been ripped out _twice_. I've had my face crushed in several times and had to have several reconstructive surgeries. I have a fucking steel plate in my head to _protect_ any weak spots in my skull."

"And the only reason he didn't get involved in the fighting up until then was so that he could be on standby to put me back together again."

Izuku took on a sickly shade of green that nearly matched his hair. So did the others in the room. Her guardian looked as if he were torn between screaming all kinds of obscenities and crying. Even the old man looked ill and rattled.

"The last time I saw him was the day that he left. The latest threat knew where we lived. Knew my sisters faces, and had left a slew of pictures with notes detailing what he was going to do to them and make us watch. He did the only thing that he could do- he took them and _ran_. And I'm glad that he did. Because that last guy was fucking nuts."

"And the heroes?" Shoto asked, his voice shaky and barely above a whisper.

His question prompting her to say.

"The only heroes that I'd ever known of were my friends. The people who didn't let me fight alone and had my back no matter the circumstances or the risks. There was _no one_ else. The police couldn't do anything and weren't equipped to even try. _Crazy_ and _superhuman power_ isn't a good combination. And certainly not something that they could have handled...not even with help."

The lot of them looked stricken.

But she didn't care anymore. She'd answered the questions that she felt she should answer at the moment. And she was just _done_. She turned and without another word walked up the stairs and into her room and quietly closed the door as she vaguely heard someone- her guardian?- say in a desperate, pleading tone from below.

_"Please tell me that she's lying about something. Anything. Please, Naomasa. Please-"_

* * *

Ichigo would be lying if she said that she slept well that night. The sad truth of things was that she _didn't_.

The nightmares that she had from the mere mention of those fights were nearly enough to cause her to wake up screaming until her throat bled. As it was, her guardian woke her up _twice_ when he came into her room to check on her and found her trying to fight people that were no longer there anymore.

The nightmares finally got so bad that she _did_ wake up screaming at one point. And it didn't help any that she found herself being held down by someone who attempted to soothe her, but couldn't seem to reach her.

The nightmare was so vivid and real to her that it was a wonder that she didn't use her abilities to shed someone's blood. Thankfully she panicked enough to forget for just a moment that she even had abilities at all. Once she managed to finally calm down again- which _did_ take a while for her since she was having trouble shaking the dream.

Her guardian finally wrapped her shaking body up in her blanket and went back downstairs. Where he settled them both on the couch next to the fireplace and set her in his lap and just held her while she tried to calm down and bit more and stop shaking so badly.

She didn't remember drifting off again, but she must have at some point since she woke up again a little while later to see the sun filtering through the window in the living room and did a quick look around just to get her bearings.

Her guardian was still there.

He hadn't left her again after that last nightmare. And for that she was grateful since his presence had helped her with the nightmares. Which had seemed to finally stop after a while and had finally allowed her just a little bit of peaceful rest before she had to get up.

She felt exhausted now that she was awake again. And she had no doubt that she might snap and snarl a bit at everyone today while she was busy cooking, due to her lack of rest. But at least she'd feel a bit better later. Hopefully.

Crawling out of her guardian's lap was going to be a trick that was for damned sure. Especially since the man was dozing and seemed to be resting his chin on top of her head and the slightest movement on her part would cause his eyes to fly open.

Huffing quietly she glared at the wall on the far side of the room and tried to figure out how to get free when she heard him ask in a low rough sounding tone. "Oh, are you awake now?"

She squeaked at the sound of his voice and squirmed in an effort to try and fling herself out of his lap but had to stop when he squeezed her slightly and said with a slightly warning tone, "Don't. Move." She stilled instantly and slumped over a little bit in an effort to make herself look small as he lifted his chin from the top of her head and slowly loosened his hold on her a bit.

One hand going up to the back of her head so that he could use his palm to press her face against his shoulder for a moment as he slowly unwound his stiff body so that he could get up and put her down. Once he had her set back onto the couch, he then dropped to his knees in front of her and checked her over.

Call him crazy but between all of the nightmares she'd had previously- he wondered if she was even feeling well enough to function today.

She had dark circles under her eyes, and her face was a little bit paler than usual. But aside from that, she seemed perfectly fine.

Sitting back on his heels he ran a hand through his messy blond hair and then asked, "Are you feeling alright?" Feeling like he really needed actual vocal confirmation from her before he could move on.

She blinked at him and then pasted on a small, awkward looking smile. "I'm fine. Just...a tad bit tired." He nodded his head in understanding since he hadn't been able to sleep a fucking wink at all last night himself.

After hearing Naomasa confirm that she'd not lied about anything that she'd said- he'd had a terrible time trying to relax enough to manage to get any rest at all. Couple that with the few times he'd checked on her and found her having nightmares and well, he hadn't bothered to try and sleep any after that.

It would have proven to be a futile endeavor anyways.

Especially since she'd woken up screaming at one point and _scared_ the absolute hell out of him. Not to mention the fact that she'd woken up Izuku, Shoto, and Naomasa from a sound sleep. But all three of them had gone back to bed once they had seen him step out of her bedroom with her in his arms.

"No nausea?" He asked after a moment or so.

"No."

"Are you still feeling up to cooking today? Or would you rather try and catch up on your sleep?"

"I can cook."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

"No one will hold it against you if you aren't up to it any Ichigo."

"I know."

He sighed and nodded his head again and slowly got back to his feet as he asked, "Want to go get washed up and dressed while I fix you something to eat before you get started?"

She took a moment to very subtly sniff herself. Or rather her shirt to see if she smelled. Which she did, just a little bit due to the multiple times she'd sweated during the night.

Seeing her nose scrunch up a little bit before she tipped her head back to look at him again, she muttered. "That would actually be nice. Can you give me ten minutes?"

"I'll give you twenty." He said, and watched as she practically vaulted herself over the back of the couch and ran for the stairs.


	25. Chapter 25

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i've had a bad migraine today that sort of made it hard to write this chap.

* * *

Ichigo was back downstairs within the time frame that she had asked for. Her hair was damp, and pulled back into a high ponytail. And she was also dressed in a nice outfit and wearing a little bit of makeup. Blush and eyeshadow from the looks of it since her cheeks had a nice natural-ish rose color to them that hadn't been there before. And her eyes- those lovely green orbs looked as if they were glowing a little bit with the extra color around them.

Which was fine since Toshinori already knew that she wasn't much of a primping of fussing sort of girl. In fact he would bet anything that she was wearing the stuff to try and look... _better_. Less tired than he already knew she was anyways. Probably so that she wouldn't worry anyone.

"You look nice." He said as soon as she walked into the kitchen. She literally got a deer-in-the-headlights sort of look on her face at his complement and looked down at herself for a second before muttering.

"Dammit. It's too much isn't it?"

He took a moment to look her over a tad bit more carefully this time and grinned before replying. "I think if Gran Torino were any younger than his nearly eighty years- you'd have to beat him off with a stick."

She scrunched her nose up in a disgusted manner and let her shoulders slump a bit. "That's just wrong."

Toshinori chuckled in amusement as he finished up making her breakfast and grabbed a bowl so that she could eat it. "I agree. It is wrong. So we must never speak of this again." He said as he finished up dishing her food into the bowl and then grabbed her a spoon and set them on the small table across the room.

She eyed him as he did so, and waited for him to move back over to the stove to grab his own breakfast before finally sitting down at the table to see what he'd laid out for her.

She was somewhat surprised to find that he'd made her some oatmeal with some sliced banana and brown sugar. Sitting down, she tucked into the meal since her stomach was cramping from not eating the day before as he walked back over and sat down across from her and watched her for a second to see if she was actually going to eat it. And smiled once she had taken several bites of it.

"Do you like it?" He asked after a bite or two of his own meal.

"Hn. Yeah." She replied as he watched her finish her food off in record time.

He wasn't the least bit bothered that she'd barely said anything about how it tasted since she had wolfed it down so fast that she probably hadn't tasted it at all. In fact he was fairly certain that since it hadn't been able to cool very much that she might have burned her tongue just eating it.

His eyes flickered over to her for a second, noting that she was looking almost longingly at the pot still sitting on the stove. Making another amused sound around a bite of his breakfast, he asked. "Do you want seconds?"

She gave him another deer-caught-in-the-headlights look. So that was a yes.

"I probably shouldn't. The others haven't eaten anything yet."

"You were ill yesterday and weren't able to eat anything all day. I'm sure that they won't mind." He said encouragingly.

"What about the old man? Won't he be upset to miss out?"

He paused eating for a moment and set his spoon aside after taking a moment to lick it clean before finally replying. "Gran Torino will be his usual charming self regardless of whether he's starving or not. So help yourself."

She didn't need any further prompting and grabbed her bowl and got up and went and fixed herself another serving and then returned to sit at the table. This time she had some blueberries and bananas in her oatmeal. And she wasted no time at all at tucking into the meal either.

Toshinori watched her with a bemused expression, thinking of how quickly he'd probably lose a hand if he were to reach over and try to come between her and her food right that moment.

She wolfed down her second bowl nearly as quickly as she had the first, after which she decided to get started cooking. And after setting the dirty dishes in the sink went about pulling out some of the stuff that Toshinori had prepped for her yesterday after she'd gone to lay down.

She made some small stuff first. Side dishes like slaw, spiced cranberry, and even some punch that was part apple cider, orange juice and cranberry juice that he'd managed to taste test. And it was delicious enough to give the 'cocaine' coffee that she'd made a definite run for it's money.

She also made some cookies, fudge, some stuffing for the turkey, some mint flavored cookies with some chocolate chips, and some small cakes with white chocolate and caramel drizzled over some fruit.

Of course while she was making those, Toshinori was prepping the outdoor oven so that he could cook the ham and the turkey in it. After all, it wouldn't do for him not to start cooking those inside while Ichigo was working on the sides, desserts and other stuff.

None of the food would ever get done due to the limited capacity and space of the indoor stove. And while it was true that the cabin's kitchen was big enough to accommodated a second oven, or even two more of them if he wanted to be technical- having so many ovens in one place would have been confusing.

Besides, cooking the turkey and the ham in the outdoor oven would give them a nice wood smoked taste. And he really, really _liked_ the whole wood smoked taste.

It tended to remind him of the few holidays he'd been able to share with Nana before her passing. And those memories of his late master were something that he stubbornly clung to even after so long because it was all that he had left of her.

* * *

Izuku, Shoto, Naomasa, and Gran Torino finally woke up around ten or so. And by then Toshinori had decided to grab himself a seat at the dinning room table and watch Ichigo work since his small part of the cooking was currently being taken care of outside.

It was a good thing that he'd decided to do so too. The second that Gran Torino walked into the kitchen and smelled all of the goodies that Ichigo had made/was still in the process of making- the old man turned into a kid let loose in a candy store.

He didn't even have time to warn the girl to protect the sweets before the old man was making a beeline for the nearest plate of cookies. If not for the fact that Toshinori and the others had talked a bit in length about some of the stuff that the girl had mentioned last night before she'd retired.

Plus tossed out some ideas about what sort of abilities she _might_ have. If he were anyone else then he might have been thoroughly convinced that Ichigo was just another powerless person.

However the fact that she managed to smack the old man's hand away from the plate of cookies without even looking at him. Coupled with what she had done when she had saved that kidnapped boy yesterday, both sort of clued Toshinori in on the fact that his young ward seemed to have an... _extrasensory_ type of ability that she used to gather information on specific people and things.

In this case, she was using said ability to prevent Gran Torino from getting his hands on those cookies.

Which was just hilarious. Especially when the old man resorted to using his quirk and literally bounced off of the walls as fast as he could in an attempt to get to them. And still _failed_.

Not only that, but Ichigo plucked the old man out of thin air and held him upside down by his ankle as she stepped away form the counter, and walked over to the kitchen door, and then promptly tossed the man outside and slammed the door shut again.

"No one gets any dessert if he touches any of the cookies, fudge or other sweets." She warned as she brushed past Izuku and Shoto so that she could get back to fixing the soup that she'd been preparing as another side dish.

The boys wasted no time upon hearing her warning in grabbing the plate and making themselves into a living barrier.

"We'll defend the cookies with our lives!" Izuku said in a determined tone. Shoto merely gave his friend a side eyed glance and corrected him.

" _He'll_ defend them with his life. I'm hoping to live long enough to eat something before I die horribly."

Which just made Toshinori shake his head at the silliness of his students as he resumed talking to his friend about various things. Naomasa had some theories about some cases he'd been working lately and wanted Toshi's thoughts on them.

"My heroes." She said playfully, causing Izuku to beam at her while Shoto blushed a little bit and looked embarrassed.

Who knew that having someone call the two their hero would reduce the two boys to such a state? They both looked so oddly pleased with themselves.

_It's weirdly cute_. Ichigo thought to herself as she finished cutting up some of the vegetable that she was going to put in the soup and then picked up the cutting board and dumped it all into the pot of beef stock. After which she added some salt, pepper and a few other things and then placed a lid on the pot so that it could cook for a little bit as she sighed and went to sit down for a little bit.


	26. Chapter 26

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter sort of made me cray a little bit.

* * *

"I'm going to go sit down for a little bit." Ichigo said as she walked over to Toshinori and softly asked, "Could you let me know if the soup cooks for more than an hour? I don't want it to burn."

"Of course my girl. Go on and rest a while." He said with a slight wave of his hand.

Watching her leave the room while _hoping_ that after all of the work that she'd already done that maybe she'd manage to grab a nap since it would be a few hours yet before the main course of their holiday meal was finally done cooking.

Once she made her way over to the couch and flopped down onto it, Toshinori finally turned back to Naomasa with an apologetic look. "Forgive the small interruption, my friend."

Naomasa merely waved the apology off knowing that he was likely worried about the girl since she hadn't slept so well the night before. "It's alright. I understand that your concerned. She really doesn't seem like she's feeling very well right now either. And I know that it isn't just because of the nightmares she had last night."

Toshinori grunted in agreement.

Because despite the long and difficult night Ichigo had had he knew that she still wasn't quite feeling _well_ just yet. It was part of the reason why he'd made oatmeal for breakfast this morning. The girl couldn't throw up anything that was easy on her stomach and just as easy to digest.

In all actuality he was quite happy that she'd eaten two servings of the stuff since he had a feeling that her nausea would be back soon. He just wished that he knew _why_ she kept getting so ill.

"Do you think the doctors at the hospital might have missed something when they had her? Some underlying medical issue?" Naomasa asked in a hushed tone. Not wanting the kids to overhear him.

Which Toshinori was grateful for since Izuku would become alarmed and Shoto...would likely take Bakagu's place as the girl's temporary shadow just to keep a close eye on her.

"I'm not sure." He said after several heartbeats of silence. "I'd like to think that the doctors were very thorough with her care but..."

"She might not have agreed for them to treat her for specific things. I mean, she was the patient and all. And at the time she didn't have a guardian that they could ask for permission from- right?"

"Yes. That's true." Toshi said with a sigh before saying, "But then again, her illness could be attributed to something as simple as stress or her medicines."

"That's true too. Has she been stressed lately?" Naomasa asked.

"I've only had her for several days now. And while she doesn't seem stressed at first glance, I know that the transition from losing everything that you've ever known and loved to getting a new...family figure- can be stressful on a person. Especially a teenager."

Naomasa didn't have to say anything since Toshinori was drawing on his own experiences as a kid who'd lost everything. Most people didn't know it, but the man had lost what little bit of family he'd had left as a young boy. And had had to live in the system for a while after being sent to Japan.

If not for the fact that he'd gotten a scholarship to U.A. as a teenager- Toshinori's life might have turned out considerable different than it was now.

The world might never have had the hero All Might to protect it.

_And what a shame that would have been_. Naomasa thought to himself. Without All Might around, the villains of the world would have caused much more chaos and catastrophe. More people would have _died_.

And he never would have met, much less become friends with such an _amazing_ person.

The other man broke through his line of thoughts by mentioning the fact that Ichigo had gotten upset with him when he'd mentioned the fact that he wanted to put her in the Hero course at the school. Perking up a little bit in interest about why his friends ward would be upset about being placed in such an amazing place, he couldn't help but ask _why_.

Especially after she'd revealed last night that her home had no heroes Pro or otherwise. One would think that she might jump at the chance to give others the sort of protection that she'd grown up without.

"Why does she not want to be in the Hero course?"

"I'm not totally certain. So far her excuses have been 'I don't want to be one.' and 'hero work isn't for the weak or faint of heart'."

"That's true." Namoasa said with a nod. "It isn't. But Ichigo hardly comes across as either of those things. As for not wanting to be one...I'm stumped. I honestly can't imagine going through the things that she has as a young child and _not_ wanting to do something to help others."

"Shota said something about her being traumatized by the things that happened to her and having a death wish. And that maybe that's why she doesn't want to be a hero." Toshinori said with a sigh.

"He might be right about that. Even I know that people get burnt out after doing hero stuff for so long. And she has been working as one- or at least operating as one on a scale that we can't imagine- for _years_ now. Even we tend to shelter our children from such things at least until their trained up enough to handle such things."

"I mean, for god's sake Toshi, can you _imagine_ the horrors she's seen? The violence and agonies that she's been subjected too? She gave us a little bit of information about it last night but...I think she kept things as vague as possible to let _us_ fill in the blanks ourselves. Or maybe to prevent us from knowing the full extent of everything that she's suffered. But to do all of those things as a _kid_? At the age of twelve? Probably without any sort of actual training at all! I can't imagine how all of that must have damaged her. It's a wonder that she hadn't broken. And it's a downright miracle that she hadn't been killed!"

Toshinori closed his eyes when he felt the familiar sting of unshed tears begin to prickle at them took a deep breath in an attempt to push the sadness that he felt welling up aside. It wouldn't do for him to break down and cry in front of his friend.

He was strong. He was a rock.

He couldn't afford to be anything else at the moment.

And yet, his voice came out sounding choked when he finally spoke again. "I don't know how to help her. She doesn't talk to me about the important things. And I doubt that she trust anyone else enough to talk to them either. But...I'm _worried_. I can't help it. As much as I want to help and protect her from those things. I'm only human and-"

"And your already attached to her." It wasn't a question. Merely a fact that Naomasa had picked up on after observing his friend's behavior around the girl.

Toshinori fussed and worried and fretted as much as any parent would.

"She may be the closest that I ever come to having an actual family- c _hildren_ of my own. I can't help that I want her to thrive."

"But you can't be with her every second of the day either. No matter how much you may want to be."

Toshi sighed again as his shoulders slumped as Naomasa asked, "So? Am I going to help you warp her in bubble wrap or what?"

It took the blond man a few moments to register what his friend's words and once he did he merely nodded his head and said firmly, "Bubble wrap." as he reached out one of his large hands to the man for a fist bump. Already feeling better about everything from just hearing those simple words.

Naomasa smiled at him and extended his own hand out to him and pressed it to Toshinori's own.


	27. Chapter 27

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally someone appears!!!

* * *

Soon after the two started planning to wrap Ichigo in 'bubble wrap' and protect her from everything that could possibly hurt her now that she was under Toshinori's care- the two decided that since there was absolutely _no_ bubble wrap anywhere in the cabin, that they should instead get started on the decorations.

It was sort of an odd tradition for the blond to drag out a synthetic Christmas tree out for _this_ specific holiday. But he had been oddly insistent on having one this year. Which might have had something to do with the fact that he was already thinking ahead to Christmas.

And was probably thinking of leaving the tree up just in case he and Ichigo decided to use the cabin again in a few more months.

So after collecting it and a box or two of decorations, the two men had settled themselves in various spots in the living room to get to work, _quietly_ so as not to disturb Ichigo any. Since she had actually managed to go to sleep on the couch, a little while ago, and Toshi wanted to be close by just in case she had more nightmares while she rested.

Now here they were, Toshinori putting the tree up as starting to decorate it with some odds and ends. While Naomasa sat on the floor trying to untangle the string of colorful little lights that his friend wanted to put on the tree.

The lights were tangled up pretty good.

And he couldn't help the fact that the occasional frustrated growl escaped him. Especially since he was fairly certain that his friend didn't usually pay the decoration any real _attention_ when he was putting them away.

In fact he would swear on his mother's grave that the man simply wadded up the string of lights and carelessly tossed them _wherever_ until he needed them again.

His frustration at being unable to untangle them after an hour straight of non-stop struggling _finally_ gave Naomasa the excuse to throw the damned things at the tall blond once he figured out that he wasn't going to be able to untangle them any.

After all, they were Toshi's damned lights. Let him break his fingernails trying to straighten that mess out!

The lights hit Toshi in the back and caused the man to stiffen ever so slightly and slowly turn his head to look at him with a totally affronted look. "Throwing things now are we?" He asked, his tone somewhat _irked_ despite the presence of his trademark smile being on his face.

"You try to untangle that mess."

"I'm busy decorating the tree. I want it to look nice."

"Well let's see how far you get _without_ those hell-ishly lovely lights." Naomasa said in a sweet tone as he gave his friend an innocent smile. Knowing that if the two of them had been totally alone here, they would have broken down and had a water balloon war or something already to help them sort out their difference's in opinion.

However since Gran Torino and the kids- _especially_ Ichigo were all present, Toshinori was attempting to take the high road and not let his temper get the best of him. It wouldn't work any.

But the blond man could try as much as he liked.

It really wouldn't change the fact that they'd likely be at each others throats for an hour or so from this point on. And there was nothing wrong with that really.

Toshinori was just as human as anyone else in the world so he occasionally _needed_ the outlet so that he had an excuse to be a jerk.

And Naomasa didn't mind being the one to give him that excuse since it was fin to watch his friend try to be 'bad'. _Try_ being the operative word here. After all, as dark as Toshi's thoughts could get from time to time- the man really was a frigging saint.

He almost literally didn't have a mean bone in his body unless he was in costume.

Seeing the gears in the blond's head turning, Naomasa tried to hide his grin from the other man as he tried to untangle the lights and wound up getting pissed enough to use his quirk.

He nearly howled with laughter and fell off of his perch when Toshinori sent some of the Christmas lights flying everywhere and startled Ichigo awake when a couple of them hit her.

"The hell?!" The girl said as she turned her head to look in the direction the lights had come from. And blinked her blurry eyes in an effort to clear them while her guardian quickly pointed at Naomasa and made himself look as innocent as possible so that he wouldn't suffer her wrath.

After all, disturbing the rest of someone who was sickly was a _terrible_ thing to do. Especially since people tended to get really short tempered and upset.

Weirdly enough, Ichigo had already figured out who was responsible for waking her. And even weirder still, was the fact that she wasn't the least bit angry about it. If anything she seemed sort of _amused_ to find him standing there trying to sell his Naomasa up shit creek.

Snorting, she shook her head and then slowly stood up and took a moment to stretch, her back popping as she did so, before she then meandered off towards the kitchen. Probably to check on the soup that he forgot that he was supposed to be watching.

Realizing what he'd done, Toshinori let out a loud _'eek'_ sound and quickly bolted for the door at the exact moment that Ichigo could be heard cursing in the kitchen.

He got all the way to the woods across from the cabin before he heard her shout, "Get back here right now and explain this mess!" at him and decided that he needed to run _faster_.

* * *

He walked down the school hallway behind the little chimera creature and a woman in a BDSM type outfit. The second that he'd felt her energy, he'd grabbed his bike and rode straight to where he felt some lingering traces of her and decided to investigate.

Getting past the wall surrounding the school was much easier than it probably should have been for him. However he'd been caught snooping rather easily by a shaggy looking guy with long black hair. Which was probably just _part_ of the reason why he wasn't being hauled off in handcuffs at the moment.

The only other reason that he could think of was curiosity. After all, these people didn't know him, but even he knew that they would be erring on the side of caution after everything that he knew the school, teachers, staff and kids had been though. And he couldn't blame them any for it.

Besides they didn't know why he was even there. Much less why he'd bothered to break into the school's grounds to begin with. So he at least expected them to be pissed about his intrusion.

"Here we are." The chimera chirped happily as he threw open the door to a room and then stood back out of the way while the woman roughly grabbed one of his shoulders and shoved him into it.

He stumbled a little bit because he wasn't expecting such rough treatment from a woman and it startled him. But he quickly regained his footing and took a moment to look around.

He was in a conference room of some sort. He could tell that much by the placement of the long tables that made a U shape around the room. Wondering what he was doing here, he turned his head to ask, but soon snapped his mouth shut when the guy who had captured him as well as a bunch of other people came filing through the door.

Everyone grabbing a seat while he stood there wondering what was going on now.

Sure he understood intimidation tactics. Displays of power or higher enemy numbers, but this was just ridiculous. He was unarmed for fuck's sake! And though he didn't have a quirk like just about every other person in the world, he wasn't _dangerous_ to them unless he was pushed.

So what did this display of numbers and strength even do? Aside from sort of piss him off?

"Thanks so much for coming on such short notice everyone," The little chimera said as he quietly closed the door to the door and locked it before then walking between the tables and chairs to get to the only unoccupied seat in the room and took a moment to climb into it and settle himself. "I know that today is a holiday that each of you would rather use to visit your families and friends but this couldn't be avoided since we have an unexpected-"

_"Shit."_

The chimera stopped talking and looked at him oddly. Almost like a disapproving father would. It rankled, but there was little that he could do about it.

Everyone in the room was looking at him as if they'd like nothing more than to _bury_ him in a shallowly dug grave somewhere. The sheer amount of displeasure and malicious intent filling the room was nearly tangible.

It was just that damned strong.

If he were anyone like Uryu, he would have been knocked off of his feet by it by now. Luckily for him, he was much sturdier than he seemed.

"Now, guest-" The chimera said, suddenly addressing him. "If you would be so kind as to explain to us why you broke into our school grounds? Why your here? Your occupation. And give us your name too, please."

"Which one do you want me to answer first?"

"Whichever you prefer is fine." The chimera said with a wave of his paw? Hand? _Whatever_.

"Alright," He said before then giving his name. Or at least the variation of it that he'd been using all this time since he figured that it make searching for Ichigo easier. "My name is Chad Sado. I'm a musician. And I broke onto your school grounds because I'm looking for someone, a friend. She's been missing for more than four years now and I could feel residual traces of her energy located here... So I came to investigate." He finished talking with a slight shrug.

Everyone was looking...a little bit less like they wanted to bury him somewhere and a tad bit more concerned now.

"Wait so-"

"Someone who's been missing for more than four years was _here_? At our school?" Someone asked in an incredulous tone.

"Yes."

"What's your friend's name? And give us a description of him too." One of the people- a blond guy who looked as if a cockatiel was nesting in his hair, said as he quickly pulled a pad of paper and an ink pen out so that he could write everything down.

Probably so that he could tell anyone else on the staff or amongst the students to keep their eye out for Ichigo. Which was a smart move, but even he knew that if his friend didn't want to be found, then she wouldn't be.

"Her name is Ichigo Kurosaki," He began, and paused when the man's head snapped up. His eyes widening ever so slightly behind his shades. "She's about six foot tall, has long black hair, green eyes that sometimes look like they're glowing- she tends to scowl a lot. You really can't miss her if she's actually around here. She's a really noticeable girl." He said and then watched the chaos that unfolded around him next.

Everyone started chattering at one another at once. Their voices steadily becoming louder and louder as the moments wore on.

Because they were all talking at once, he had some difficulty catching some of the conversation here and there. Though he kept a careful eye on everyone for any sort of suspicious movements.

Some distant part of him was very aware that _not_ watching them could lead to trouble. Especially since he'd noticed at least three people amongst them who could really fuck him up badly if he wasn't at least on guard a little bit.

Finally everyone quieted down and the little chimera asked, "You say that your her friend? Can you prove it?"

"I have a few pictures in my wallet of us. I also have a few other things that belong to her. But she'd have to be here to confirm everything is actually hers." Chad said. And tried not to cringe when the scruffy dark haired guy from before shoved his chair back, and stood up, and then circled around the table to dig in his back jean pockets for his wallet.

It took the man a minute or so longer than Chad would have liked, and he was beginning to suspect that 'Scruffy' was actually using this as an excuse to feel up his ass. But he finally pulled out his wallet and held it up and then flipped it open and upon finding several pictures of himself and Ichigo in the wallet- handed it over to the chimera so that he could see for them for himself.

The pictures were old and worn around the edges and back then Ichigo had been a strawberry blond with warm amber eyes. And while she hadn't changed all that much over the years, her hair and new eye color tended to throw people a little bit.

But she was still the same gorgeous girl that he'd befriended almost twelve years ago.

Finally after studying the pictures to his content, the chimera asked curiously. "Why are her hair and eyes different now? Dye and contact lenses?"

Chad snorted at the randomness of the questions but didn't bother to reply since it wasn't any of the furry little fella's business. Nor anyone else's.


	28. Chapter 28

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chad is a fierce protector and friend. and Toshinori gets to have a fluffy moment with Ichigo!

* * *

Despite the fact that the young man didn't answer to his inquiry, Nezu would have been a fool not to take a chance at gathering what information he could about Toshinori's troubled young ward while he could. And if there was one thing that he absolutely _wasn't_ \- it was a fool.

Letting his eyes flicker to the photo's in the young man's wallet one last time, he noted how close the two in the pictures seemed to be. There was something more than simple friendship there. He could tell from the pictures and how the two were posed together. It wasn't quite anything romantic in nature, but it was definitely a kinship of some sort.

It had to be a very deep one too for the young man to have come all this way after searching for Ichigo for so long.

"Very well, I concede that you know and are in some way close to Ichigo." Nezu said as he slowly closed the wallet and held it out to Aizawa so that he could take it from him and hand it back to...Chad, was it?

_Such a strange name for someone with japanese blood in him. I wonder where his name got it's origin._ He wondered to himself as the young man carefully took his wallet from Aizawa's outstretched hand and stuffed it into his jacket pocket.

"Now that that's been established, might I ask some more questions? Your friend's appearance here has been a topic of much speculation. And sadly, we don't have very many answers."

Chad narrowed his dark eyes at the chimera for a moment. A calculating expression flitted across his face for a moment as he carefully weighed the pros and cons of telling him and his friends anything at all. After all, he didn't know what they would do with any of the information.

What if they tried to use it against Ichigo and himself?

"I'll answer your questions if you and your friends sign a non disclosure agreement. And a contract stating that nothing will ever be used against her in _any_ way." Chad said.

Nezu was quiet for a moment as he mulled over the young man's words while someone hissed out in an outraged tone, "Why would we do that? Was she into something illegal?"

Chad shook his head no.

"They're just simple questions Mr. Sado, you needn't worry that anyone will do anything untoward with the information." Chiyo assured him.

But he merely said, "While you may say that ma'am, Ichigo and I have both been betrayed far too many times to simply take your word for it. It's far too easy for people to _lie_."

"I understand that Mr. Sado. But everyone in this room is a Pro-hero-" Nezu started to say when the young man cut him off.

"The only hero- pro or otherwise, that I will ever trust implicitly is _Ichigo_. I've followed that girl to hell and back more than once. She's _all_ that matters to me at the moment and I will not have any of you becoming a threat to her. I absolutely _cannot_ risk losing her again."

Nezu didn't need to ask anything else for the moment since the young man's words told him more than Sado was probably aware of. He could tell that Aizawa and some of the others caught the young man's slip up too from the way that everyone had gone utterly silent, and smiled.

If he were playing a game of chess, then this is what would be called, _Check_.

* * *

A few hours later-

She kept feeling something slither along her senses, somewhere in the back of her subconscious mind. And it was beginning to get a little bit annoying as she and her guardian and their companions finished cleaning up the leftovers to the dinner that she had helped to make.

Despite her soup being overcooked and turning into some sort of unappetizing _mush_ \- and winding up braining her guardian with a rock the size of a small flower pot for his negligence.

Dinner had gone amazingly well.

The food was nice. And the company was even more nice.

Everyone seemed to have a great time. Including the elder.

Whom after seeing her brain her guardian had managed to put two and two together and figured out that she was responsible for his near death experiences on this trip. And had decided that it was probably in his best interest to tone down his terrible personality and become a frigging joy to have around otherwise he might never make it home in one piece.

His words, not hers. Though he was more than a little bit right about that. With her nausea returning and with so little rest- not to mention whatever the hell was teasing her senses- her temper was a lot shorter than it should be. So...she really would kill the old man if he irked her anymore than he already had on this trip.

Would she feel good about it. Maybe. For about five to ten minutes or so. Would she be proud of it? Only if he turned out to be a Nazi or something.

Otherwise it would be business as usual.

That being said, now that the kitchen was all cleaned up. And the food was put away, there was only one thing left for all of them to do. So naturally she wasn't really sure what to do with herself when she wound up being grabbed by her guardian, and placed in the living room. Right next to the Christmas tree. Where she had to _stay-_ her guardian instructed her not to move in a very firm tone- while everyone else slowly migrated into the room and picked out a spot to sit.

While her guardian began to systematically go through the shit ton of presents underneath and around the tree and hand them all out. And once he was done, everyone had their gifts.

She especially had hers.

The damned things outnumbered her so much that she was reminded of those ball-pit thingys that kids tended to get lost in when they were really young. There were just so many boxes and brightly colorful bags that she was practically _swimming_ in them.

And at the first sign of one tipping over to fall on her, she let out the most god awful girly shriek she could muster in an effort to call for help. Which only made her companions laugh at her. _The bloody savages!_ She thought in annoyance as her guardian finally took pity on her and sat down on the floor next to her and put her in his lap so that she could at least be seen again and picked up a gift and held it out to her.

"Sorry. I guess I really did go a bit overboard, huh?" He said softly. She gave him a dirty look and snatched the gift from his large hand and then scowled down at it thinking that he hadn't just gone overboard a little bit.

He'd bought a mountain! A _literal_ and _proverbial_ mountain.

"How did all of this stuff even fit in the back of the car?" Was all that she could manage to say. And since she wasn't even looking at him, she missed the grin that curved his lips before he replied to her flabbergasted question.

"Oh that? I shipped some over to the cabin using a very trusted shipping company-"

The look that she gave him next cut made him quickly fall silent. Honestly, aside from Gran Torino and on occasion Shota and Recovery Girl, he'd never seen anyone who looked so _displeased_ with him before.

Automatically holding another gift up as if it would shield him from her ire, he watched as she began to tear into the wrapping paper of the gift in her hand.

She had an odd way of unwrapping something, he noted in amusement. Instead of just tearing the paper off, she carefully removed it. Seemingly trying to keep the brightly colored paper from tearing apart so that she could set it aside and check the inside of the gift out.

Once she felt that she had 'aww'ed over the item enough, she set it aside and then let him hand her the next one. This went on and on and on for quite a while. Probably more than an hour if the uncomfortable way that his legs began to go numb were any indication at all.

Even so, he couldn't find it in himself to move away from her and leave her to open her gifts alone. Call him crazy but he'd never seen anyone _freak_ out so much over how many gifts they got. He'd never seen anybody irked enough to complain about them either.

It simply wasn't done.

Seeing her take her latest gift and remove the colorful bow from it and place it on her head- or in her hair rather, was a incredibly wonderful sight for him though. It was so wonderful that it made his heart flutter in his chest and a huge smile curve his lips.

She just looked so _cute_ that he could barely contain himself.

"Ichigo?"

"Hn?"

"I-Is it alright if I kiss you on the cheek?" He asked quietly. She stopped messing with the gift in her hands and turned her head to look at him for a second. Seeming to mull over his request before finally sighing and tapping her cheek with her index finger and saying softly.

"Make it fast. And don't make it weird."

She gave him a pointed look to emphasize her point. And he grinned at her and waited for her to turn her head again before pressing his lips to her cheek affectionately. His heart fluttering that much faster in his chest as he thought, _I got to kiss her cheek just like a dad!_

He couldn't wait to tell Shota when they got back from their trip, he would be so jealous!


	29. Chapter 29

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Stuff happens!!!

* * *

Ichigo was just about done with messing with any other presents and was going to tell her guardian to- I dunno. Save some for different occasions? When she felt _it_ again.

That annoying sense that something was slithering along her senses. It felt familiar and yet at the same time not.

It took her focusing on it for s second to figure out that there were actually two things that she was sensing. Or two people at least. One of which was from someone that she actually _knew_. And she wasn't going to lie, she suddenly felt very, very giddy and excited about that.

Especially since she'd been sure that she was the only person in this strange new world that was _alive_. She had been almost totally certain that everyone and everything back home had been destroyed. So knowing that one of her friends was alive was beyond wonderful to know.

It was fucking fantastic.

And the fact that she could tell who they were, even over a distance made her literally feel weak with relief. So much so that she actually collapsed when she'd been up to go grab the trash can so that they could clean up the torn wrapping paper and such.

If it weren't for Izuku and Shoto both managing to catch her when she fell, she was fairly certain that her guardian would make an attempt at fussing over her again. And she couldn't have that at the moment because the 'other' was drawing closer to their location.

And she had a bad feeling that he was out for _blood_.

Especially since the other feeling that she'd been getting- it was from someone _evil_. She could practically hear him. Whoever he was, he was close by. And had the damned stain of blood and death covering him like a shroud made up of the pain, agony, screams and cries of the poor souls that he'd killed.

She shivered in the arms of whoever had her and tried desperately to place the feeling that she was getting from the other. It was rare to come across humans that felt like this. And to be utterly honest, he didn't feel all that _human_ to her. More like something attempting to hide itself in human skin in an attempt to blend in as much as possible.

No- he felt more like...an Espada to her.

Searching her memory she couldn't even recall if all of the Espada's, aside from Nell and a select few others that she'd helped, had somehow managed to survive the last fight. So when he drew closer and closer to the cabin- she couldn't help but freak out.

Because in a few short minutes, her guardian's holiday was going to be shot straight to hell. And she really put emphasis on the _hell_ part.

Finally when he was within a specific range of the cabin, she pushed herself out of whoever's arms had been holding her and summoned her fullbring while calling out for the Souten Kisshen to appear. The moment that the little fairy like people appeared, she barked out an order for them to put up a barrier around the cabin and ran for the door to intercept the guy heading their way.

She didn't care that she was scaring her companions, or worrying her guardian who thought that she must have been having some sort of PTSD episode because something had triggered her.

All that she could think of was maybe if she stopped him from reaching the cabin- then maybe, just _maybe_ her guardian and his friends would survive what was going to happen.

* * *

Chad didn't answer any other questions for the heroes. Not until they had a NDA drawn up and changed some of the wording to include never using 'inhuman acts from a POW used in self defense' against Ichigo. And a select few other things.

He was _very_ specific about everything that he could possibly think of.

Which not only included the POW thing but also included that they would never make an attempt to strengthen their ranks using her. Her DNA could never be taken without expressed consent. They wouldn't make any attempts to have her put into a program to breed new soldiers for them. Her future children if she decided to have any- would be beyond their reach. _Always_.

He made sure that the legal ramifications of trying to do _anything_ to Ichigo for any reason would be so great that their heads would spin from it. And a bunch of other things that were so telling as to some of the things that the girl may have suffered.

That more than a few people in the room were beyond _horrified_.

Chiyo and Midnight both looked sick. Which was natural since the two of them were women and understood very well some of the horrors that Chad had mentioned.

The guy with the cockatiel in his hair actually threw up. More than once. Though he was trying hard to pull himself together. And a few others tried to stay stoic and as unbothered as possible at what he insinuated. But they didn't manage to do so very well.

Chad could see the anger and rage burning in their eyes when they looked at him. Hell, he could fucking _feel_ it in the sudden spike of tension in the room.

It was so strong that it was nearly suffocating.

Finally the papers were finished and copies were made and then handed out. Everyone took a few minutes to read over their copies of it before signing. Although he noticed that a few of them signed the papers automatically.

The scruffy dark haired guy was one of the first to sign his NDA. He didn't even read it over. He snatched the stupid thing and wrote his name on it with an angry flourish before slamming it down on the table and then resumed glaring at him as he waited for everyone else to sign their papers.

The scruffy man was more than upset. He was visibly twitching. Chad could see his fingers curling and uncurling in a subconscious gesture of barely leashed aggression.

He'd likely demand to know everything. Including the names of the people who had hurt Ichigo is such a way. But Chad wouldn't bother to give him the names since his friend had more than seen to it that those people died on their knees, _screaming_.

* * *

"Ichigo!" Toshinori shouted after her as she ran outside. "Ichigo! You aren't back there! You're safe!"

However she didn't seem to hear him. She didn't even look back at him or acknowledge the fact that she had heard him.

Which was worrying for a number of reasons as he got up and started to go after her. Intent on dragging her back if he absolutely had to when Gran Torino stopped him by snagging his arm.

"Don't boy," Toshinori flailed for a moment in the elder's grasp and then turned his head to _growl_ at him that something was obviously wrong with her and she needed him right now. But the elder's next words stopped him cold. "I wonder if she's sensing something dangerous and threatening nearby and is reacting to it?"

He felt as if he'd just had icy cold water dumped over his head. He felt the merciless grip of icy cold fear wrap it's frigid fingers around his heart and squeeze until he was on the verge of panicking. His mind latched onto the words, _dangerous_ and _threatening_ and refused to let go.

Before he knew what he was doing, he was jerking his arm free of the elder's grasp and running as fast as he could outside in the hope that he could catch up to her since she might need backup with whatever it was that had her so freaked out. Especially if it really was _there_ and she wasn't just having an PTSD episode of some kind.

He was really praying that it was just an PTSD episode. He really, really was. With his quirk fading more and more it was only a matter of time before he would be completely _useless_ to everyone around him.


	30. Chapter 30

Ichigo didn't manage to get very far from the cabin before realizing that Izuku and Shoto were both hot on her heels. The two of them were using their quirks to amplify how fast they moved. So keeping up with her at her present speed was fairly easy for the two.

"You two need to go back to the cabin!" She called out, hoping that they would listen to her advice. But the two were stubborn and instead of heading back, managed to pull up abreast of her. One boy on either side.

"No way!" Shoto said loudly.

"We can't leave you alone!" Izuku reaffirmed, his body sparking with green colored lightening.

They were both set on staying as close to her as humanly possible. And that was a bad move on their part since she likely wasn't going to be walking away from the Espada totally unscathed. But if they wanted to risk their life and limb and _not_ listen to her while they had the chance- all she could do was let them tag along.

Besides, she couldn't afford to waste her time yacking at them right now.

The Espada was drawing even closer and had already locked onto her location. He was moving fast too. His attention diverted from the cabin and the rest of the people within it for the time being.

"Fine. But if I tell you two to run- then you do it. Understand."

It wasn't a question. She fully expected them to listen to her or _else_ once she was done with the Espada, she'd kick their little asses from one side of the mountain to the other. And then once she was done with that, she'd brain her guardian again for letting them run off in the first damned place.

The two nodded their heads soberly, but even she knew that they weren't likely to listen if she did tell them to run. She wasn't naive enough to totally underestimate a couple of kids that were likely in the stupid Hero course at the school. And that meant that they were foolishly heroic little idiots.

But hopefully they were trained up enough that they could at least defend themselves enough to _not_ die on her right away. She was pretty sure that her guardian and the others would hate her if they did.

_Awesome._ She thought darkly when she felt the Espada decide to launch an energy attack in an effort to catch her unawares.

The blast came out of the dark woods ahead of them and she barely had enough time to knock both boys to the ground with a shoulder check, and then finally throw herself out of the way. Before bits and pieces of burning trees, dirt, and rocks were raining down on them following an alarmingly loud _**Boom**_.

The two boys lay on the ground trying to get their bearings as what had just happened slowly hit them. Their expressions were matching. One part what-the-fuck, grimly determined and of course- _fear_.

It was natural for them to be afraid even if they were being trained to be heroes. They were _kids_. It was understandable that they would be afraid in the face of possible death. And while she wasn't entirely sure about what sort of combat situations they may have faced. She could only hope that they would work with her instead of freeze up and work against her.

She had to remind herself that they had every right to be afraid here.

This wasn't what they were used to. There was no teacher on stand-by to stop the fight and save them if things got out of hand. No doctors or nurses in the immediate vicinity to treat their injuries and keep them alive.

There was just her. The enemy, and them.

She could already feel the crushing pressure of the Espeda's presence closing in on them and had to tune out the two boys who were temporarily frozen in place and asking each other in hushed tones,

"D-Did you see what just happened?"

" _No_. Did you?"

"No. It was some sort of type of attack."

"We'll need to be careful then. Being unable to see something coming at us will be difficult to get around."

She felt the insane need to roll her eyes. What was it with boys and being stupid enough to challenge even the unknown? Was it a genetic thing? A retard thing? She really didn't get it.

All she knew was that the two boys were _definitely_ idiots. After all, what sane person would stay after something like that and _not_ run away screaming for help?

The Espada came tearing out of the darkened tree line a good fifty or so feet away from them with a loud roar as he charged straight for her. He moved so fast that she barely had any time to see which Espada he was, much less any number ranking him before he had her in his grasp.

His thick arms wrapped around her torso like bands of steel as he popped her feet up off of the ground, and kept going, while she let out a string of oath's so _foul_ that it was a wonder that neither of them were struck down by lightening for offending the ears of god himself.

However despite being in his grasp- she didn't panic at all since she wanted him to get away from the boys. So she acted as if she were struggling. And then once he had carried her far enough away from the two kids so that they wouldn't get caught in the crossfire- somehow miraculously managing to do so without killing either of them when he ran into trees and such- she struck.

Raising a hand in the air, she quickly called on Zangetsu's final form. Wanting the scythe more than the sword at the moment. And the second that it appeared, brought it down between his his shoulders.

He howled and threw her right into the trunk of a tree. Where she hit it with a sickening snap that only came from bones breaking before she fell to the ground in a daze trying to catch her breath so that she could get back up and do it again.

The first things that she really noticed once she caught her breath was the fact that he was struggling to get her scythe out of his back, while slamming himself into various things in an effort to dislodge it from the muscle. Which was probably why she was still alive at the moment.

The second thing that she noticed, was that she couldn't feel her legs. They weren't numb or anything. She just... _couldn't_ feel them. However she could still move them. It just took her a second or so longer than she wanted. Still it was something.

So either there had been some sort of damage to her spine when she'd hit the tree. Or something was going on with her head. Maybe her nerves?

Either way she didn't have time to dwell on it and self diagnose herself. She had something to take care of.

Gritting her teeth so hard that she actually hear something break and could taste the coppery flavor of pennies filling her mouth, she pushed herself up. And with the help of the tree that she'd been thrown into, even managed to get up again. About damned time too since it looked like her new friend- and she used the term loosely here. Very, _very_ loosely- had finally managed to get her scythe out of his back and looked like he had blood in his eye.

"Fuck me." She muttered as the Espada turned his crimson eyes on her and then let out another loud roar. This one filled with even more murderous rage than the last one as he charged her again.

She had the thought at the last moment before his fist connected with her face to try using a Cero blast to get rid of him. But without knowing his ranking as an Espada she worried that it would do nothing to faze him.

* * *

Toshinori had heard the explosion a good distance away and felt the ground tremble from the force of it. Feeling the chilling feeling of lead settle in his stomach, he turned towards the sound and ran as fast as he could shouting.

"Ichigo!"

He didn't know exactly how far away from the cabin he was at the moment. All he knew was that he was currently somewhere between the top of the mountain and the middle. Which was good, he supposed. Because it meant that Naomasa and Gran Torino and the boys were still safe.

Still, he couldn't help but be incredibly worried about what that explosion had been caused by.

Finally he seemed to reach the area where the explosion had occurred and skidded to a stop when he saw Izuku and Shoto about to run off and shouted. "Midoriya! Todoroki! What the hell are the two of you doing here?"

It wasn't often that he cursed. Really it wasn't. He tended not to curse often because of who he was and how it made people look at him when he'd still been All Might. So the fact that he had resorted to it now was telling as to his current frame of mind.

The two teens looked at him and then started talking at once. But the basic gist of things was that they had been with Ichigo. Something or someone had attacked them- that's what had caused the explosion. And whoever or whatever had grabbed her right in front of them and then run off in the direction that Izuku was pointing.

As pissed as he was, he couldn't really bring himself to be terribly upset at the moment. Certainly not enough to scream at them for being so foolish when they had simply been trying to help.

Still, having some confirmation on what Ichigo had likely sensed was nice. _Sort of_. Finding out that his girl had actually picked up on someone who actually had attacked not just her but his two students was more than a little bit irking to him.

Really it was.

And if he'd been in possession of his whole quirk, he would have gladly _torn_ whoever-the-fuck the guy/thing was to pieces with his bare hands.

He was about to tell the boys to go back to the cabin when they all heard an ungodly, animalistic howl of pain and rage that chilled the very blood in their veins. Realizing that Ichigo was likely fighting whatever had made the sound- Toshinori had to make a choice. Stand there and argue with two stubborn boys or go and help his ward to the best of his ability.

He knew that the kids were trained pretty well. But the enemy was unknown to him. Which meant that he didn't know any of it's strengths or weaknesses. And he was uncertain if Ichigo had any formal combat training outside of the martial arts.

Making a tsking sound, he took off running again. This time with Izuku and Shoto were hot on his heels.

* * *

Trading blows with the Espada brought back memories for her.

Memories of Orihime's obduction because of Aizen. The restless and frustrating span of months that she and the others spent searching for her. And the several more months after that that they spent wandering around Hueco Mundo because none of them knew what the hell they were doing.

But even more than that- was the fights that had taken place there.

After finally retrieving Orihime and reaching the homestretch, her heart had been torn out by one of the last Espada's still standing. She barely recalled what she felt when it happened aside from the initial shock of looking down to find a huge gaping hole in her chest.

Feeling the Espada land a solid hit on her again, made her growl in annoyance while she chided herself about having her mind on the situation instead of in the past.

Knocking his hand away before the next blow could land, she spun into his personal space and slammed her elbow into his nose with a satisfying _crack_ that sent him staggering back with another inhuman howl before he went on the attack again.

The blows had been coming faster and faster ever since he'd removed her scythe from his back. And she'd been dancing in and out of his reach as much as she could just to land blows on him without him getting his hands on her again. Her legs were still shaky from when she'd been thrown into the tree. And to be perfectly honest she wasn't sure if she was going to be walking away from this one.

The Espada's fists felt a lot like Chad's did whenever he'd hit her that time his mind had been tampered with. It fucking _hurt._ And she wasn't entirely sure how much more she'd be able to take before her strength finally gave out completely. She was still mulling over the whole 'Cero blast' idea when all of a sudden a blur came barreling out of nowhere and caught her around the waist. She barely had time to register anything but the blood running down her face and various bruises and broken bones screaming in agony.

But the whole grabbing her thing seemed to be a running trend now- friends. Foes. Tom, Dick, and Harry and each one of their fucking cousins; it didn't matter. Everyone just seemed to _grab_ her like this now.

If not for the fact that she recognized the person that the hands belonged too she might have shouted at the Espada for bringing backup like a little wussy. After all, what self respecting egomaniac Espada brought back up to a fight?

Cowards and weaklings, that's who.

"I am here." She heard her guardian say gently as he shifted his hold on her so that she was settled in his arms looking up at him. His blue eyes had that stormy look to them again as he looked her over. Taking note of the various bruises and every other part of her that was bleeding.

She knew for a fact that her face was a mess of discolored skin, swelling and _red_.

Even so, she still managed to rasp out in a rough tone. "It's not as bad as it looks." Which was true. Her current injuries were _nothing_ but superficial compared to some of the others that she'd suffered off and on over the years.

At least she still had her life.

She felt her guardian use a hand to gently cup one of her cheeks and use his thumb to wipe away some of the blood in her eye as he said softly, "I know, little one."

And then he carefully handed her off to Izuku who was standing just a bit behind him, glaring angrily at the person who had hurt her so badly.

Once Izuku had her, he took a moment to look her over too while Shoto peered at her from over his shoulder and blanched upon seeing her face. "Good grief he really did a number on you, didn't he."

"I've had worse." She rasped out as she attempted to smile, but only wound up groaning and telling the boys not to make her smile. Smiling hurt her face dammit! She was so busy trying to focus on something other than the pain of her injuries that she nearly missed her Guardian stepping forward.

_Away_ from them. And closer to the Espada and certain death.

It took her a moment, but she did eventually catch onto what he was doing and upon realizing what he intended, she flung herself from Izuku's arms and hit the ground running. Somehow managing to put on a inhuman burst of speed so that she could get around him and push him back.

"No!"

Her hulking blond guardian looked startled so find himself being physically _pushed_ back by her and tried to explain. He needed to make the one who had laid their hands on her pay. "Ichigo, little one, I need-"

_"No! You don't!"_ She shouted at him.

Her throat was raw from having the Espada try to strangle her a little while ago, and her vocal chords frigging burned like like were on fire. So her shout didn't come out as loudly as it was intended. And was quickly followed by a horrible coughing fit that ended with her spitting up blood.

"You need to leave," Her guardian said gently, somehow managing to keep one eye on her and the other on the Espada at the same time. "I can't fight if I'm worried about you. Izuku and Shoto will take you back to the cabin and Gran Torino and Naomasa will call for help."

He tried to nudge her aside so that he could go...do something stupid. Like try to avenge her. But dammit she was a persistent child and refused to budge. If not for her injuries, and the fact that she likely had internal bleeding somewhere, he would have used a little bit of force to move her.

But for the moment simply he couldn't risk it.

It was while he was distracted that the guy that had beaten the holy hell out of her decided to attack them. Toshnori barely had enough time to try and shove her aside before a fist was flying towards the back of her head.

Ichigo must have been able to sense it despite being distracted, because she caught the massive hand and used it to keep her balance so that she could deliver a spinning kick to the guy's chest. Sending him flying back a good distance away where he hit the ground hard enough to skid and kick up dirt.

He seemed dazed. Meaning that this would be the most opportune time to strike. However before he could so much as move a muscle, he heard Ichigo say. "You know what? Fuck this." And then she pointed at the guy.

The tip of her index finger was glowing.

Which was startling to him. Because he didn't know what was going on or what was going to even happen, he totally forgot to move. So when a small blue orb the size of a marble appeared at the tip of her finger- he couldn't look away. Something about it looked... _ominous_ to him.

Of course the second that he heard her utter "Cero." as the little blue orb shot forward and the entire mountain shook as if it were trembling in fear as it made contact with the guy and the sky lit up with white hot fire.


	31. Chapter 31

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> fun facts about lake tahoe. 
> 
> it is 191.59 sq miles. and is 1,644 feet deep. 
> 
> now onto the chapter.

* * *

Gran Torino and Naomasa didn't know what the hell was going on. Toshinori was gone. All _three_ of the damned kids were MIA. And then there was the series of **Boom** 's and other tell tale signs of explosions going on in the distance that must have really been whoppers.

The whole frigging cabin shook as if it had just been hit by an five point five earthquake!

Things fell off of the walls, furniture shifted and moved. Pieces of the ceiling even fell here and there.

Toshinori's precious Christmas tree met a grisly end when it fell over into the fireplace and got set on fire. Plus there was the fact that the floor had a few burning pieces of timber strewn about it. Each one was precariously close to some of the _very_ flammable furniture and cushions.

And all the two men could think was that if Toshi's cabin burned down- he'd be mighty sad. Thankfully they managed to stomp out the flames to keep everything at least semi in one piece.

That poor Christmas tree was a goner though. There was barely enough left of it to throw outside once they managed to put it out.

But at least _they_ were okay-ish.

Once the flames were out and he could manage it, Gran Torino meandered over to the nearest window and checked the barrier that Toshinori-boy's kid had had placed around the cabin. He could still see the otherworldly glow of light surrounding them in every direction he looked.

So the barrier had seemed to hold up pretty well.

But he couldn't help but wonder if that meant that the 'earthquake' and such was merely something that the barrier couldn't protect against.

Either way, it was mighty damned _impressive_ to the elder. The man had worked with people with barrier and force field quirks before. So he had a fair idea of just how they worked. Not to mention how well.

However even he knew that all barrier/force field quirks had a drawback. A weakness or limit of some sort.

He wasn't totally sure how this one worked exactly.

Especially since Toshinori had told him and Naomasa that his kid didn't _have_ a quirk. And while Toshi-boy was pretty convinced that the girl hadn't been lying, he wasn't. Just because she wasn't registered somewhere or wasn't aware of having a quirk- didn't make it so.

However it was already very clear to him already that the barrier seemed to have _no_ set time limit. Or at least it didn't have one that was reached just yet. There were also no visible flickers- no cracks in it at all- that would indicate any sort of strain on the girl physically. Nothing that even indicated any sort of weakness.

Not even after those explosions that had occurred.

Which meant that it was a great deal sturdier than most that he'd ever seen before.

"Gran Torino?" He heard Naomasa say from a few feet or so away. He hummed in acknowledgement and waited as his friend asked, "Is anything wrong?"

_Aside from not knowing what was going on_ , Were the words resting on the tip of his tongue at the moment. However he stopped himself from saying them since he knew that Naomasa was likely pretty worried about everyone too and instead said. "I was just checking the barrier."

The other man tilted his head to the side for a second in an inquisitive manner. "Is it still holding?"

"Shockingly, yes. There's no flickering. No cracking in it."

Naomasa made a low thoughtful sound. "Then Ichigo must have a very strong and fierce desire to protect us." The younger man was smiling at this. And the elder wasn't really sure what he was smiling for.

"So it would seem." Gran Torino said wryly.

Uncertain of whether or not he should continue to be impressed by this display, or irked to high heaven. _Young people nowadays._ He harrumphed, finally deciding on a middle ground. Especially since he was likely to stay impressed for a while, even once everyone returned.

* * *

"Izuku? Shoto? Are the two of you alright?" Toshinori asked as he gently shook the two boys awake, just in case they had been injured in that last assault. To be perfectly honest, he was still trying to figure out what the hell had happened once Ichigo had unleashed her 'Cero' on the person that had attacked her and the two boys.

Everything had just...blurred together once the little marble sized blue orb had struck the man. And to be perfectly honest, he wasn't really sure what to make of everything that he could recall prior to being set on the ground a few minutes ago.

He'd been in a state of shock.

Who wouldn't be after something like that? But it wasn't as if he'd been rendered unconscious or anything. Not like the boys had been.

But from what he could recall, Ichigo was far _stronger_ and _faster_ than she seemed. Hell, he would almost say that she was stronger than Izuku was at present with the use of his quirk. Which was really saying something considering her currently injured state.

The second or so before her 'Cero' thingy had struck, she had grabbed him and reached for the boys. Since the thing was one of her attacks, and she obviously knew what to expect from it, she had felt that moving away from it's immediate vicinity prudent.

He couldn't say that he wouldn't have thought similar if he had been in her place.

As it was there was a _huge_ frigging crater that he could see even from here. The damned thing was so big that it was alarming to him. Honestly it had to be at least twice- no maybe _three_ times as big as Lake Tahoe. Which he knew spanned _more_ than a hundred miles, and appeared to be just as deep.

Naturally this fact caused him to let slip a few choice words in shock.

Because _holy fucking hell_! Even he'd never caused quite this much damage before. Not even in his younger days as All Might! And his punches could literally cause tornados!

But since the mountain was more than big enough to take it...maybe it hadn't done any truly lasting damage to anything? He could hope, right?

Even if that hope was probably a futile one.

Still, he couldn't help but be _worried_. And maybe just a little bit scared that Ichigo could do something like this. Because again- _holy fucking hell!_ Where did she even _get_ this kind of power?!

And even more to the point was; _how_ had she gone unnoticed for so long when she had this sort of power? Shouldn't _someone_ somewhere have noticed her- or even this?! It was just...mindboggling.

It took him a little while to pull himself completely out of his shocked stupor enough to check on the kids.

Ichigo had collapsed shortly after reaching their present location, and was lying face down on the ground, unconscious for the moment. Whereas the other two boys had been thrown away from them at the time of the blast.

And while he wasn't sure if they had been slammed into any trees or boulders while they'd been thrown, it was better to be safe than sorry.

He'd checked them both for anything that felt like broken bones and even palpitated their stomachs to check for internal injuries, but dammit he wasn't a doctor and his medical knowledge was seriously lacking. So the sooner they both woke up, the better they'd be.

Finally one of the kids woke up. Though to be totally honest he wasn't expecting Ichigo to show any signs of life for _weeks_ after this incident. So when she spoke, he let out a scream because he was so startled.

She didn't speak again until he finally calmed down, but when she did it was to ask if he and the boys were okay. He didn't bother lying to her. He was okay physically. But he was also very deeply shaken and didn't know what to do with his present knowledge of her abilities.

She seemed to understand what he was saying. And didn't really say anything else aside from asking again how the boys were. It took the two teen several more minutes before they opened their eyes.

And since he couldn't really tell her if they were actually okay or not, she seemed to be content to lay there in that uncomfortable position where her weight was likely pressing down on every broken bone and bruise and just wait.

She didn't seem to mind that he forgot to ask her if she was okay or not. Or that his entire focus was divided between the damage that she'd done and the two boys.

Finally, after what felt like forever both Shoto and Izuku opened their eyes. And the relief that Toshinori felt was...enormous. He took a few moments to ask them both if they were hurt and to help them sit up and then pulled them both into a tight hug before he then shifted his attention back to her.

The instant that he realized that he'd been ignoring her. Ignoring the fact that she was badly injured and could even be dying- he felt shame fill his entire being.

After all, what sort of hero ignores the suffering of others?

He was quick to remedy the situation to the best of his abilities. But...he feared that the damage had been done. She looked at him with blank eyes. And when he apologized for not checking on her like he should have, she merely told him that it was alright.

The fact that she didn't say, _I'm used to it,_ changed nothing. But it tore at his heart nevertheless.


	32. Chapter 32

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i wanna do some fics where villain toshinori meets ichigo. i also wanna do some where she meets him in his weak state and decides to 'take care of him' 
> 
> (i'm trying to figure out if she's a new co-worker, neighbor, or just a feral street child at the time)
> 
> But a few soft villain ichigo, and chad in the MHA universe would be entertaining too. (can you imagine the mischief those two would get into?) 
> 
> A doctor Ichigo/toshi story would be nice too. 
> 
> Toshinori's such an awesome guy. he needs more love. like a looooot more.  
> and as much as i like smut, and dark stuff- fluff and domestic stories are nice too. the different facets of everyday life make awesome stuff to work with.

* * *

Chad was in the midst of upholding his part of the deal that he'd made with the heroes. And was trying to vaguely cover the fact that she was considered a half breed. But explaining to everyone what he meant when he called her a 'half breed' was proving more problematic than he'd anticipated.

After all, how did one explain the existence of Soul Reapers and Quincy's as anything but a _sub-species_ of human- granted a sub-species that _didn't_ quite exist in this particular world?

Not only that, but they looked really, _really_ skeptical until he pointed out that they had mutants and metahuman's running around their cities and towns pretty much unchecked.

And really, how was a half breed sub-species any different than them? Especially since she had some similar abilities. Not a lot. But definitely some. Though he didn't really elaborate on what abilities she possessed any.

He would just leave that up to their imaginations since they likely had a better idea of what was what anyways.

Naturally, that seemed to shut down any skepticism and ideas of running any tests on her for the time being. Which was great.

But while he was patting his back for a job well done he felt Ichigo's power spike dangerously and let out a loud, feral sounding, _"What the fuck?"_ As he quickly got to his feet, knocking over the chair that he'd been offered after everyone had signed their NDA's, so that he'd have somewhere to sit during the undoubtedly lengthy questioning.

His sudden and abrupt action startled a few of the heroes who tensed and expected him to attack them or something. He didn't mean for it to to startle them. But it couldn't be helped. He could see something akin to blue-white pillar of light appear in the distance through the window, behind the little chimera and 'Scruffy', and knew that it was Ichigo's doing.

However they quickly got over any need to defend themselves from him when the earthquake hit not too long afterwards.

It was a bad one judging from the way the whole building shook or the damages that it suffered. And Chad was quick to grab several of the heroes and shield them from any debris that might have harmed them when parts of the ceiling fell and some of the windows shattered.

Thankfully no one was hurt by what happened. Though many of them were slightly panicked. And for good reason too since some of their co-workers and some of their students were still around campus and had probably gotten caught in the quake and they were worried that someone might be hurt.

While others were concerned about what may have caused the earthquake since they didn't tend to have them very often in this region of the country.

Chad didn't bother to tell them that it was Ichigo's doing since he wasn't sure what they might do to her, signed NDA's or not. And the last thing that he wanted or needed for either of them was to wind up on the other side of the law.

Not that he would mind entirely. Being a baddie for once.

Not as long as Ichigo didn't mind either.

He had literally followed his friend to hell and back before. So he was up to anything that she _would_ and _could_ lead him through. He really didn't give much of a damn what it was anymore.

"Some of you need to go check on your co-workers and the students." Chad finally said once he was able to pull his mind away from his thoughts enough to use his voice again.

Everyone was shaken by what had just happened and needed no further prompting. Several people were practically flying out of the room the second that they had the door open. Leaving him alone with the chimera and two others.

All of whom were already checking their cell phones and computer for anything that could tell them what the hell was going on.

* * *

Moving Ichigo would have proved to be a very tricky thing. Especially with how badly she was hurt. However when it was time for them to leave, she was up on her feet and ready to go. Despite how much he, Izuku, and Shoto all fussed and _tried_ to get her to let one of them carry her back.

After all, she didn't need to exacerbate her injuries any and make them even worse.

Besides they could all see how much they hurt her whenever she started to take a step. She flinched and had to bite her lower lip just to keep from letting out any sounds of distress.

They all worried about how difficult it would be for her to remain on her feet with so many broken bones in her legs, and torso. And though Toshinori didn't say it- he was utterly terrified that his shameful actions prior had pushed her back into a dark place mentally.

"Ichigo, please- let one of us carry you the rest of the way." He pleaded when she started to take another step and suddenly doubled over and started coughing.

He wouldn't swear to it. But he was pretty sure that he saw fresh blood staining the palm of her hand that she used to cover her mouth once she dropped it back to her side again. And felt his heart plummet in dread.

Finally after letting her walk a good distance, he'd finally had enough of her ignoring their fretting and when she started to stagger a little bit, he took the chance to step forward and scooped her up in his arms. Eliciting a pained gasp from her because he'd had to jostle her a little bit just to get her settled into place.

"Sorry." He said quietly. Meaning it with all his heart.

He was so _sorry_ that he'd hurt her with his carelessness. It honestly hadn't been his intention to do so. He just...didn't know what to do.

He'd _balked_. It was stupid of him. But well, he was only human. And he tended to balk sometimes when he was faced with something he couldn't quite wrap his mind around. And after seeing what she was capable of there was bound to be a small adjustment period for him. So it wasn't as if he'd ignored her on purpose. Really!

"I really didn't mean to hurt you." He finally said, letting his eyes flicker away from the scenery up ahead so that he could look at her.

She was biting her bottom lip in an effort to stay silent since he wasn't exactly the lightest and most sure footed of people. Her breathing was also harsh as if she'd run a marathon or two. And he could hear a distinctive rattling sound coming from her chest.

_A punctured lung?_ He wondered to himself before then turning his head and _ordered_ the two boys to go ahead of him and check on Gran Torino and Naomasa and make sure that they were okay.

He figured that the were. But it always paid to be cautious when dealing with situations like this one. Besides, once they were back at the cabin, they could use his long range radio to call for help for Ichigo. Naomasa would know where it was and how to use it. So he could help them with that.

He waited until the two boys were well on their way back before finally asking, "Do you have a punctured lung? Your breathing is labored."

"No. Just...really bad bruised ribs." She gasped out with a small wince.

"You have broken bones though."

"Not anywhere in my chest." She wheezed out before then hissing at him from between clenched teeth. "Now stop talking to me."

He thought that she didn't wish to talk to him both because of the pain she was in and because of his blunder. So he stopped talking figuring that she would need time to forgive him even a little bit.

All he could do until then was keep apologizing for his mistake.

He could see Izuku and Soto waiting for him when he finally reached the cabin. He also noted that whatever means of protection Ichigo had put up around the area when she had run off- was gone now.

And all that remained of it were the little fairy thingy's.

All of whom flew over to him and fluttered anxiously around Ichigo. Their little voices calling out, asking questions, there was even one that sounded really annoyed with her. It- er, he- he meant to say, _he_ when referring to it.

_He_ called her a 'stupid girl'.

Not knowing what to do about them, Toshinori let them be for now and just kept walking.

It wasn't as if the tiny beings were hurting anything. And he _was_ rather curious about how they were connected to his girl. So decided to just sit back and just observe them all. He wasn't the only one either.

He could already see Gran Torino, Izuku, and Shoto observing them curiously too.

"Ichigo are you okay?!"

"You've gotten torn to pieces again!"

_"What the hell did you think you were doing dividing up your power like that, you stupid girl!"_ The annoyed fairy roared at her. Ichigo merely blinked at him in an bemused manner.

"Now, now, calm down Tsubaki," One of the other fairy's said in a mollifying tone. "Ichigo had her reasons to do it. She wanted to protect her companions from becoming collateral damage."

"I don't care! She could have been killed, _again_!"

Toshinori's mind latched onto the words, 'killed' and 'again' and he felt something in him just shatter into pieces in mounting horror. He wasn't the only one either. Izuku, Shoto and Gran Torino all seemed upset too.

Though he couldn't help but wonder if maybe the reasons that they seemed upset were different from his own. Finally he placed Ichigo down on the ground outside of the cabin, and then slowly moved away so that he could go grab a first aid kit, some bandages and other stuff. Including a blanket and pillow for her.

Which meant that he missed out on some more of their interaction. However he ran into Naomasa on his way back outside.

"Toshinori! Your back!" His friend said as he walked over to him and took a moment to look him over for any injuries. And upon finding none, let his eyes flicker to the items in his arms before saying, "I just managed to get a message through to UA. Someone will get into contact with Nezu and a rescue should be here in an hour or two."

Toshinori grunted in response to his words and then tensed up a little bit when he heard the man ask, "Who got hurt?"

"Ichigo."

"What?! How? Was it the earthquake?" Naomasa asked in concern.

"No. There really was someone out there."

"Huh?! Who?"

"I don't know. But whoever he was, he beat the ever loving hell out of her." He said as he stepped through the door to rejoin everyone outside. So he missed anything that his friend might have been about to say next.


	33. Chapter 33

Ichigo let the Souten Kisshen heal her broken bones, any internal injuries that may have she had, her little spine issue as well as the worst of her bruising. Everything else was considered to be superficial and would heal on it's own in a few days or more. So she felt no reason to use the healing abilities in excess.

Besides, it took a _lot_ out of her to feed the Souten Kisshen as much energy as possible just to help them be able to heal her. And once they were finished, all she wanted to do was rest.

Not sleep exactly, more like...just lay there and be _boneless_ and _lazy_ or something. Conserve her strength while she could. However the moment that the Souten Kissen had finished and returned to their 'new' original state.

Which basically consisted of the crystal flower that had once rested in Orihime's hair being _fused_ with her heart. The crystal flower rested, embedded now, in her skin barely a hairs breath right above the valley of her breasts. Where it was visible to everyone if she allowed them close enough to see it.

She was just laying where her guardian had placed her, letting her mind drift when she suddenly heard an astonished sounding, "Holy hell!" come from somewhere to her...left?

And turned her head to see Izuku, Shoto and Gran Torino standing there looking freaked.

Well, maybe freaked was the wrong word to use.

They just looked really, _really_ excited by something. So like a dumbass, she decided to look around and see what it was that had them looking like that. But she couldn't see anything worth getting excited over.

It took her several minutes for her brain to get out of neutral and realize that they were excited over the Souten Kisshen's healing abilities. And that made her anxious since she knew that the little fairy's could be used for a _lot_ more than just healing. Especially when she recalled all of the trouble they had unintentionally caused over the years.

Mostly due to specific incidents involving Aizen and his bullshit experiments.

"Oh wow! Those little fairies healed you!" She heard Izuku said excitedly as he practically skipped over to her and latched onto her and then started to bombard her with questions. "How do they do it? Do they have limits on what they can heal? What about the barrier that you put up before? Is it really one of their abilities or did you simply use them as a focusing tool? What else can they do?"

Ichigo didn't answer him because it was wiser not too. So instead she tuned him out and waited for someone- at this point she'd settle for anyone really- to pull him off of her. However the others seemed to have similar thoughts about the little fairies.

To say that she was displeased by this turn of events would be a gross understatement.

So she was fairly happy- sort of- when her guardian finally rejoined them and took one look at Izuku, attached to her, and chattering away excitedly. And dropped what was in his arms to quickly pull the teen _off_ of her.

"Young Midoriya!" Toshinori said sharply. Causing the teen to abruptly shut his mouth and stop talking as he felt carefully himself being pried off of Ichigo by his master. "What do you think that your doing? She's injured!"

"But-"

_"No buts."_ The man growled as he gave the teen a small shake to emphasize his displeasure before then setting the boy on his feet on the ground nearby. "She's _injured_ and you shouldn't be chattering at her like that until she feels better."

After which he turned his attention to his girl and blinked when he automatically noted that she looked better. Not totally better. But her broken bones were fixed and some of the really bad bruising that she'd been sporting before was gone too.

It took him a second to register everything, but once he did, he was on the ground wrapping his arms around her and hugging her as tightly as he dared. Which...wasn't very tight at all considering that he didn't know if everything was fixed or not.

Still, he was so overwhelmed by everything that had happened and been learned about her. He still felt guilty for his mistake, and for being unable to be of any help to her at all when she'd been fighting- that all he could do once he realized that she was okay- was hug her.

If nothing else he could say that his relief was so great that he couldn't contain himself anymore.

"I'm so glad that your okay." He said after a heartbeat or so of silence before then slowly releasing her. "Are you still hurt anywhere?" He asked almost anxiously.

"It's mostly minor scrapes and bruises now. They'll heal on their own." Ichigo said, still feeling tired. Her guardian merely nodded and instead of asking her how she'd healed like she expected him to, smiled at her and asked her if she wanted to rest for a bit. He mentioned her having a rough time earlier as she nodded her head in confirmation to wanting rest. After which he got up and practically scrambled to grab the pillows and blanket that he'd brought outside to make her comfortable, and then used them to wrap her up like an human burrito.

Which would have been nice. If she were going into shock or hypothermic. However in this instance, it was just oddly baffling to her. Who in their right mind would find being a human burrito comfortable? She just didn't get it. But she also wasn't going to waste any time dwelling on it when she could be resting, either.

The second that she had a pillow underneath her head, she checked out.

* * *

Chad sat across from the little chimera, the old lady who seemed to be a medic of some kind, and 'Scruffy' as they rode in the helicopter in the direction where their friends who'd sent out an SOS for assistance, were.

"Does anyone know what exactly we're walking into?" He heard the old lady ask one of their companions.

"Not really. All we know is that Toshinori, Gran Torino and the kids might have suffered some sort of injury and can't be moved."

"They didn't say anything else?"

"Well, Naomasa was the one who left the message for us. But he was vague on what exactly was needed. However since the earthquake seemed to have originated from close to their location- we can only assume at this point that something must have happened that Toshi didn't plan for." Aizawa said.

Chad didn't bother to add his two cents about how Ichigo had probably been fighting someone. He wanted to get closer to the mountain before he decided on any specific course of action.

It took them almost two hours to nearly reach their destination, and once they got close enough he felt the sensation of a chill shoot down his spine and the hair on his nape standing on end in warning. However he knew enough about what he was sensing to know that the threat was already taken care of.

Still, he paled and suddenly looked as if he were going to fling himself from the helicopter once he realized that there had been an _Espada_ fighting Ichigo. However instead he simply spat a few choice words in an venomous tone that had his current travel buddies looking at him like he was possessed.

Finally he simmered down some, but it took him nearly fifteen minutes due to the fact that he was really _riled_ just by feeling the former Espada's presence so close to his friend.

Seeing that the height they were flying at was gradually getting lower to the ground, Chad made a choice.

"Hey," He said turning to look at the little chimera. "I'm going to go ahead and check the area and stuff to make sure it's really safe. I'll meet up with you guys once I'm done."

He watched the curious expression flicker across the furry little face for a second, and then reached out and opened the door closest to him.

They were still a fair distance up from the ground. Probably a few hundred feet or so. But it didn't matter any since he'd fallen and even jumped from higher heights before without any sort of trouble or injury.

Besides, he liked the feeling of freefalling.

"We're still really high off of the ground, Mr. Sado."

"I'm aware." Chad said as he slipped his safety belt off.

"Do you really think jumping from here wise?"

Wise, _no_. Never. But then, he wasn't like everyone else or he would exercise more caution. But he didn't bother to say that aloud. He merely shot the three a smile and stepped out of the helicopter and let himself fall.

He wasn't sure if they could even see him once he landed because of all of the trees and such. But if they did, they would have seen him land deftly on the balls of his feet, rise up to his full height, and wave at them to let them know that he was fine before he ran off into the surrounding trees.


	34. Chapter 34

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry this took so long to get done. I've slowed down for the story a bit. Plus it's been a little bit hard to focus on it. 
> 
> i've been working on my Story Dump? and have been adding new ideas, which led to a new possible A/B/O fic. So far I have Toshinori being an untraditional alpha who thinks that he saved an unbonded omega. And she's smacked him three times.
> 
> I have a friend who's already read the first chap and laughed. So I guess that means that it's good?
> 
> I also kind of want to do a story where Toshi is an omega, and fem Ichigo is his alpha.

* * *

Chiyo was nearly fit to be tied after seeing the young man jump out of the helicopter. Especially since it was up so high! And though Aizawa didn't seem to care for the guy much, he was...at least a _tad_ bit bothered by the young man's dangerous exit as well.

Though he didn't scream about it like Chiyo did.

Nor did Aizawa decide that if Mr. Sado had injured himself, then someone should beat him black and blue _after_ healing him. Which made absolutely no sense whatsoever to Nezu. In fact, healing someone simply to beat them black and blue afterwards seemed rather counterintuitive to him.

But he went with it anyways due to Chiyo's age and temperament.

There was also the fact that he didn't want her gunning for his furry little butt with such female fury too. But he would never admit that her temper worried and scared him any.

 _Someone_ \- the most insensitive person present at the moment- might laugh at him.

And then things would snowball until Aizawa wound up dead in a ditch somewhere. Because despite how he might sometimes joke about offing someone when he was in a bad mood- he _really_ could do it and make it look like an accident. And even more to the point, he knew where _all_ the best ditches to dump people in were too.

However even he had enough sense to know that if it happened the worst case scenario would be that he'd wind up with Hazashi and Toshinori as his 'best friends' without any sort of Aizawa-esque buffer to prevent him from _tearing_ out his fur.

But he digressed.

While he was a little bit on the shocked side about Mr. Sado's exit. He supposed that the young man had his reasons for doing what he'd done. Especially since he seemed to be a _sensor_ of some kind and had obviously picked up on something a little while ago that had upset him greatly.

Nezu only hoped that it didn't have anything to do with Ichigo since Toshinori's ward was the young man's friend.

Of course he realized, shortly after they flew over an insanely massive crater in the mountain, that perhaps it was a little bit too late to _hope_ for much of anything at this point.

* * *

The moment that Toshinori was certain that Ichigo was totally asleep he turned to Izuku and asked the boy curiously. "What were you chattering at her for?"

"It's because of the fact that her little fairies healed her!" Izuku said, his excitement from before hadn't totally waned despite his master's previous reprimand. "I was trying to find out what I could about them for my analysis notebooks. I wanted to know- well, _everything_."

Toshinori made a humming sound since he understood what the boy meant.

He'd seen him scribbling down notes furiously in classes and even some outside of classes. Every time he met someone new; he broke out his notebook and took notes.

The boy was just endlessly curious about different powers and abilities.

And the fact that Izuku was so thorough with his notes tended to help him a lot as a future hero too. In fact it was also one of the few reasons that his notebooks hadn't been confiscated. That and having those notebooks fall into the wrong hands would lead to some very deep trouble for a _lot_ of heroes.

But something told him that with the vicious way that the boy seemed to protect his notebooks- that he knew and understood this fact fairly well.

"I see." Was all that Toshinori could think to say since he couldn't really fathom all that much why the boy seemed to be so interested in the fairies ability to heal. At least until Gran Torino said,

"The girl is a little bit of a monster."

He looked at his elderly master as if he were about to give him the scolding of a lifetime for even _suggesting_ that Ichigo was a monster of any sort.

For god's sake! The girl had probably saved the lot of them from a very bad, painful and gruesome end! If anything the lot of them should be thanking her, not bad mouthing her while she slept.

However he managed to hold his tongue- and his temper- long enough for the elder to begin talking again. This time rattling off a list of things. And Izuku chimed in a time or two to help him!

It was on the tip of his tongue to snap at them both to _knock_ it the fuck off when what they were listing finally seemed to register to him. It wasn't just any list that the two were rattling off. It was a list of confirmed abilities that Ichigo either already demonstrated or they theorized that she had been hiding yet using all along.

Obviously the girl _did_ have extrasensory abilities.

She'd demonstrated that several times over already. The fact that she had been able to sense danger creeping up on them merely drove this fact home. And then there were the fairies- they were tied to her abilities somehow too seeing as she could not only manifest them. But also seemed to use them as an extension of herself as well. And then there was the barrier that she'd somehow managed to put up around the cabin.

Toshinori had had no time to stop and examine it when he'd gone after her. But from the way Gran Torino kept going on and on about it- it must have been pretty damned impressive. Especially since the old man didn't give compliments easily.

There was also the 'Cero' thing.

It was obviously an attack/trump card of sorts to her. And he wasn't going to lie, _that_ still scared him witless. The devastation that it created, alone, freaked him the fuck out.

And then there was the fact that her fairies could heal her...

He grunted as everything finally fell into place in his mind. And though he was loathe to admit it- Gran Torino was probably right. Ichigo _was_ sort of a monster.

She simply seemed to have more abilities than anyone that he'd ever heard of before. And they were strong too. _Very strong_. That was another thing that scared the hell out of him, though he didn't dare to say so aloud.

All he knew was that it was looking more and more as if he were right to worry about her wellbeing as well as various _other_ things that tended to go hand in hand with having very strong abilities.

Having her gain the unwanted attention from the wrong people would only end badly for her. Villains- would try to recruit her if they knew just how powerful she was. Especially since they would expect her to tip the balance of power between them and the heroes.

And if she refused, there was no telling what they would do to her.

He absolutely hated himself for even going there. But even he knew that it _was_ a likely outcome should any villain's manage to get close enough to her. Plus, she'd been kidnapped once already too. So her record pretty much spoke for itself here.

"I wonder if I could convince Nezu to build a tower to lock her in?" He muttered to himself.

She'd hate him if he locked her away like some fairy tail princess. He knew that. But...the idea was becoming increasingly more and more appealing by the moment. If only for the sake of his sanity.

His quiet mumblings came to an end though, when he heard Gran Torino say, "The girl would make an excellent pro-hero."

"She doesn't want to be a hero." He deadpanned, absentmindedly. Hearing the vague sound of a helicopter in the distance.

"Bah, the girl is just going through a phase." Gran Torino waved a hand at him before then adding. "She'll be a hero one day Toshi-boy. I can almost guarantee it."

Toshinori didn't see much of a point in arguing with the elder since he was just as stubborn as he was. So he let the topic drop when Izuku started to ask Gran Torino questions about something else as a distraction.

It wasn't much later that the helicopter finally arrived, and Toshinori was all kinds of thankful that he'd had the foresight to clear a big area for it to land in, around the time he'd had the cabin constructed. Seeing Nezu, Shota, and Recovery Girl was nice.

Even when the first thing that Shota did was ask him if he was injured. And upon receiving a shake of his head as an response, the man slugged him in the stomach and walked away to check on the kids. Leaving him doubled over wheezing while Nezu and Chiyo both tried to grill him on what had happened.


	35. Chapter 35

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this is so late-ish.
> 
> I had a medical flair up and got a really, really bad infection that caused me to spend all day in the local ER. Pain meds are awesome. And so is the doctor that took care of me. I'll go for a follow up on Weds. this week. And while I'm there, I'll probably be scheduling surgery.
> 
> I'll tell you something more about it once I know something a little bit more definite.
> 
> In the meantime, enjoy the chap. I worked through some seriously excruciating pain just to write it.

* * *

After punching Toshinori in the stomach, Shota made an automatic beeline for his problem children so that he could check them over for injuries.

Izuku went first because...well, he was usually the one who got the hell beat out of him the most. To say that Shota was relieved to find the boy in one piece would be an understatement.

However he wasn't done just yet.

Once he finished looking Izuku over, it was Shoto's turn. And he had a terrible feeling that if the boy was in anything but sterling condition after whatever had happened- Endeavor would have all of their asses in a sling.

Turned out that he lucked out there too. However upon scanning the area for U.A's _newest_ problem child, and finding her laid out on the ground seemingly unconscious- the man nearly had a stroke.

Ichigo was in _less_ than sterling condition. A fact that pissed him off immensely.

He did a slow once over, cataloguing the injuries that he could definitely see, and understandably worried about the ones that he couldn't see. While curling his hands into fists and trying to simultaneously decide if he should _punch_ Toshinori a few more times for letting this happen on his watch.

Honestly he didn't know what the man did anymore but he was so _not_ going to be teaching or vacationing with any of their kids without some form of parental supervision ever again.

The girl had definitely seen better days, he noted.

From what he could see, her face was messed up pretty good. It was covered in bruises and dried blood and god knew what else that made him fucking cringe.

Walking over to her, he quietly knelt down next to her and hesitantly put a hand out like he wanted to try shaking her awake when Izuku interrupted him by saying, "She was so cool sensei!"

He paused, wanting to hear whatever information Izuku had to offer about how she had gotten in such bad shape as the boy continued in an excited manner, "She's a _sensor_ Aizawa-sensei! A sensor!" Shota tilted his head to the side a little bit to indicate that he heard him and to get to the point already.

"She was able to sense someone trying to sneak up on us all for an ambush. And she even managed to put a barrier up to protect the cabin, and kept me and Todoroki-kun from being killed by an attack that we couldn't see-" At this point he was looking at the teen from over his shoulder. His normally dark eyes glittering _red_ with anger and something else that the teen couldn't quite place.

Izuku must have noticed anyways because he quickly tried to wrap the story up.

_"She saved us."_ He squeaked out.

It was at this point that Shoto decided to chime in. "She was grabbed by whoever nearly killed us. He ran off with her and when we and All Might finally found her- she was beaten up pretty bad. She was bloody, bruised, suffering multiple broken bones- All Might handed her to us and said to run. But she managed to throw herself out of our grasp and get in front of him. She told him 'no' and 'don't fight him'. And then to keep All Might from fighting the guy anyways, she blew a freaking crater in the side of the mountain just to get rid of him."

"With _extreme_ prejudice." Izuku added before then falling strangely silent for a moment.

Shota was about to call for Chiyo to come over and do what she could for the girl. Cause she had to be in pain. He could tell that much just from looking at her. Her current unconscious state wasn't a natural one.

If it were, then she would have woken up already when she felt him get near her. The fact that she hadn't done so, especially after Izuku had just outed her as a 'sensor' was troubling to him.

Being able to sense things, even from a distance, was rare. _Very rare_. And having a strong enough ability to sense danger, emotions, malicious intent and such- was practically unheard of. Even for them. Despite being part of a Hero/Villain based society, having people who could sense such things was considered impossible.

A work of fiction at best.

And that fucking crater was at least half way down the mountain...and it was insanely _huge_. There was no way that the girl could have that kind of power. Right?

But then again, so little was known about her. Sure she'd told Toshinori that she didn't have a quirk. But he couldn't really fathom anything else managing to blow a hole as big as the crater from before, in the mountain.

Either way, he and everyone else would have a shit load of questions for her and her friend Sado. If the guy ever showed up again.

He finally managed to shake himself from his nearly frantic inner thoughts enough to call Chiyo over to double check her. And once he was absolutely certain that it was okay to move her, he carefully scooped her up in his arms- barely managing to rouse her enough to even crack an eye at him as she sleepily muttered something along the lines of 'happy holiday' to him and Chiyo.

She closed her eyes again seeming to go back to sleep for all of two seconds and then nearly startled him into dropping her when her eyes suddenly popped opened again and she shouted in an excited tone. _"Chad!"_

Said young man appeared out of fucking thin air to Shota's right and easily took the girl from his arms and immediately cuddled her against his chest and started speaking to her in spanish between pressing kisses to her forehead and temple while Ichigo wrapped her arms around his neck and held onto him as if he were her lifeline.

Shota watched the exchange with some trepidation since he hadn't been totally sure that Sado had been telling the truth. And it wasn't _totally_ unheard of for villains to pretend to be someone else just to get close to specific people. Despite the fact that knowing that Ichigo somehow had ties to UA could have meant just about anything if one watched and studied them enough.

So seeing the man cuddle the girl and practically rain affection on her while she clung to him was...oddly relieving to him. Probably not so much Toshinori and anyone else not in the loop at present.

But that could be cleared up easily enough.


	36. Chapter 36

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm hoping to start another A/B/O fic set in the MHA-verse. 
> 
> but my idea is a bit different. Toshinori is an omega with the mind and aggression of an alpha. And doesn't react to things like pheromones, alpha commands and such like a typical omega would. 
> 
> Ichigo isn't the typical Alpha either. She's kind. Doesn't mind letting her packmates do as they like regardless of their secondary genders. Her mind and aggression is like that of a laid back Beta while her biology allows her to act the part of an omega for her pack mates if she needs to. 
> 
> Once Toshi's retirement hit- he found himself looking towards an uncertain future. Especially once the people of the world found out that he was an Omega. 
> 
> Brought together by chance, and desperation- can these two manage to make a bond that will last a lifetime?
> 
> What do you think?

* * *

"Oh god Ichigo you _scared_ the hell out of me when you just up and vanished like that." Chad muttered into her hair as he gave her a very small squeeze. "I was so worried that you weren't going to make it."

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to scare anyone Chad but Rukia-" She faltered in explaining the rest to him when he pulled back a little bit and stared at her.

He pressed one last kiss to her cheek and then heaved a sigh before muttering, "I know. I saw what was happening. You did good getting her as far away as possible, baby girl."

"She still didn't make it." Ichigo said with a ragged sob as she leaned in to press her face against his shoulder. "I tried to even use the Souten Kisshun to save her, but...they refused because I was already dying from my injuries."

Chad didn't tighten his grip on her, though he certainly wanted to. He'd seen Ichigo die a number of times already and had always feared that the next time would be the last one. The _final_ one.

So naturally, hearing that she had come to this new place dying, again, was _terrifying_ to him. What if she hadn't made it? What if this time had really been the last?

He would have spent the rest of his life searching for her and never finding her. And that was pretty damned terrifying to him too. The not knowing whether she was alive or dead or if he would or wouldn't ever find her again would have fucking killed him. Especially once he finally realized that there was _no_ hope at all of finding her alive and well.

Rubbing his cheek along the soft hair on top of her head, he thought carefully about what to say to her next since he knew that not being able to save Rukia had taken a heavy toll on her emotionally.

Finally, he decided on something simple, but no less heartfelt.

"I'm not going to leave you ever again Ichigo." She sniffled and turned her head a little bit as he tacked on, "Where you go, I go. _Always._ " He felt, rather than saw her smile a little bit and knew that that had been the right thing to say to her. The assurance that she wouldn't be alone again would go a long way towards helping her in the long run.

Turning his head a little bit, he saw everyone looking at them with a strange mixture of relief, awe, curiosity and...well, the big blond guy standing by the little chimera looked like he was torn between tearing his head off and being happy about something.

Which was weirdly uncomfortable for Chad since he didn't know if the guy was having some sort of mental breakdown of some kind or not. In fact his expression was so freaky that he was beginning to make him think that he'd just suffered some sort of psychotic break. And he was now waiting for him to put Ichigo down so that he could kill him.

"Hey, Ichigo is there anything that you want to tell me?" He asked as he and the blond guy locked eyes.

"Hn?" She said unintelligibly as she lifted her head from his shoulder and looked around to see what he was talking about. And squeaked as soon as she caught her guardian's eyes and felt her face flush with embarrassment. "O-Oh right."

In all honesty she had sort of temporarily forgotten that her guardian and anyone else was even there. So naturally now that she recalled they were there, she would have to introduce Chad to them.

Chad didn't even bother to set her on her feet. Not with how rough she looked at the moment. Especially not after seeing the huge assed crater that she'd made killing an Espada.

Using that much energy to kill someone that _dangerous_ was usually very physically exhausting. But he knew that she had a fast rebound ability that would have her up and on her feet again within a few hours as long as she took it easy.

Walking over to where the blond guy was, he stopped well outside of the guy's reach just in case he got any funny ideas and he wound up having to defend not only himself, but Ichigo too. And waited patiently for her to introduce him to the man and the others.

Chad expected something weird from her since she rarely took occasions like this very seriously.

As a matter of fact the first time he'd ever met her dad face to face she'd told him to 'fluff his man boobs up' and use their awesomeness to distract her dad while she snuck out of the bedroom window.

She actually left him staring down her dad while she escaped the house, internally freaking out over the whole man boobs comment. He'd been nearly convinced when he left for home that day that he needed to go buy himself a bra of some kind.

Of course he'd been fourteen at the time and didn't have a very good grasp of certain specifics when it came to being male or female. So that was really the only defense he had then to explain his behavior after that incident.

"Uh, t-this is Chad Sado." She started out as she slowly let her arms slip from around his neck so that she could address her guardian and the others. "He's my best friend from back home."

Her guardian's expression shifted a little bit away from the slightly _maddened_ look that he'd been sporting to one of understanding and then happiness?

Wait! Was it normal for a guardian to be happy about a long lost friend showing up? She didn't know. But she suddenly felt _very_ worried when her guardian stepped forward a little bit and started to lift a hand. Her eyes zeroed in on it and she started rambling so quickly that Chad was probably the only one who caught much of anything she said.

_"Oh my god Chad, I think he's going to kill you. Quick! Distract him with your man boobs!"_

Chad, god bless him, was used to some of her nonsensical jabbering whenever she panicked. So he didn't do anything but snort quietly when the words finally left her mouth, and then moved a hand up to cover her face in an effort to _stop_ her from talking anymore nonsense as he smiled at the man.

"Hello."

"Ah," The blond looked at Ichigo who was flailing her arms around and continuing to ramble barely audible words in a panicked manner. Finally glancing away from his young charge, Toshinori focused on the young man again and gave a friendly, if slightly awkward smile. "Hello. Sado, was it?"

"Yeah."

"I'm Toshinori Yagi, Ichigo's legal guardian." The blond said. Chad smiled at him and smooshed Ichigo's face against his shoulder so that he could shake the man's hand.

The two of them nearly _crushed_ each others hands while they were shaking them. Not that Chad minded any, he liked the small display of aggression from the man. It meant that he cared about Ichigo enough to risk her displeasure.

Yagi however, looked more than a little bit startled by the fact that Chad could easily break his bones and was quick to retract his hand as soon as possible while letting out a nervous sounding laugh. "My, what a strong grip you have! You could crush bones to a fine powder with that grip. Do you play sports of some kind?"

Chad flashed his teeth at him. "I have the best arm wrestling buddy in the world." He let Ichigo go enough for her to raise her head and shriek at him.

"The next time we arm wrestle you'll be lucky if I don't rip your arm off and beat you with it!"

Chad didn't react to the threat at all like most people would have. Or at all like Toshinori would have expected him too.

He merely grinned wider, displaying his straight white teeth in a parody of a feral grin as Ichigo shrieked at him a bit more while he chortled at her totally unperturbed by her creative threats of bodily harm.


	37. Chapter 37

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know if I explained Ichigo's abilities or what the Espada's are- right.

* * *

The dynamic between Ichigo and...Chad was an interesting thing to watch. Especially up close.

While riding back to the city in the helicopter, his girl had flat out refused to let go of her friend to sit normally during the ride. Toshinori had tried to emphasis that she was still injured, especially since Chiyo hadn't been able to do much about the bruising and such that still remained.

And her friend, flat out refused to let go of her too.

Which was... _irritating_ to him. Sweet. But weirdly irritating nevertheless.

So here they were on a almost three hour trip back to the city, and Ichigo was sitting in her friend's lap due to the lack of seating and room.

Toshinori only allowed it now because when he'd started to tell the girl to _remove_ herself from her friend's lap- mostly because it made him uncomfortable to think of her sitting there for other, and decidedly _less_ pure reasons- because he was too fucking young to be made a grandfather quite yet, thank you very much.

But upon hearing Shota threaten to leave him behind at the cabin to walk back to the city, he'd quickly become okay with his young charge sitting in the young man's lap.

And it wasn't as if they were doing anything perverted. Neither of them were grinding on each other or anything like that. But he would still catch himself clenching his teeth a little bit from time to time when Chad would touch her.

Sure they were little affectionate touches. But they set the blonde's teeth on edge for some reason.

Not only that but the two of them were speaking to each other in a different language so that no one could understand what they were saying to one another. But on occasion Toshinori would see different emotions flitting across his girl's face and wondered just _what_ was being said to her to elicit such looks of devastation and sorrow.

Finally the two seemed to finish speaking in tongues and he heard Chad say, "That was an Espada back there." It didn't seem like a question. Though he supposed that it could have been.

Ichigo got the grimmest look on her face, that he'd ever seen on someone before, and nodded her head curtly. "Yeah."

"How'd it get here? Do you know?"

"I don't know. And no. He wasn't exactly in a talkative mood."

"So you don't know how he got here or what his rank was or anything?"

"No. I was kind of busy having the hell kicked out of me." She said as she leaned back so that she was resting against his body.

Toshinori felt himself start to clench his teeth again when the young man started petting her hair in a soothing manner as Izuku suddenly blurted out. "What's an Espada?"

The pair turned their heads to look at the boy oddly for a moment before Chad simply said, "An Espada is a monster in human form." And received an elbow to the ribs for his curt reply. Grunting as the young man shit Ichigo a strangely indulgent look, he then sighed and started to explain.

"It's all pure animal instinct, savagery, and hunger. There is no happiness or joy in them. They're incapable of feeling such things. All that they live for is the hunt. And trying to satisfy their insatiable hunger."

_"Hugh?"_ Izuku and several others all said in unison because that had to be the most bullshit explanation that they'd ever heard before. Since they didn't understand much of _any_ of it.

Ichigo made a frustrated sound in the back of her throat and growled out. "They're fucking cannibals. They hunt and _eat_ people!"

The looks on all of there faces must have been a mixture of disgust, dread and horror. There was simply no other way to explain how he felt at hearing that the person that had tried to sneak up on them was a cannibal.

"So they hunt and eat people..." He heard Shota say in a thoughtful tone before then asking, "How do they find their prey? Do they have an M.O. that we should be aware of?"

The pair looked at each other, seeming to communicate with each other without speaking a word. It was odd just how jealous Toshinori felt at seeing this. But he managed to push it aside since he knew that that kind of deep connection with another person was rare. And usually only happened once in someone's life.

Finally the two seemed to stop communicating with each other and they both turned back to the rest of them as Chad said, "They hunt people by sensing their abilities. The stronger the ability, the hungrier the Espada gets for that person. They lose all sense and reason when their like that and turn into nothing but a slavering beast."

"Wait- they hunt by sensing other people's abilities? How does that work?"

"Even we don't totally understand it." Ichigo said before she started to chew her lower lip a little bit before then saying. "But since they rely so heavily on being able to sense their prey- even over a distance..."

Chad cut in since she seemed to be having a difficult time explaining how Espada's hunted well. "The basic concept behind what we do know about them is- that the _stronger_ a person's power and abilities, the easier it is to sense, hunt, and devour them."

"If that's so...then who was the Espada after in the first place?" Izuku asked, looking more than a tad bit worried.

"They're drawn to the powerful. So if he sensed someone amongst you who was more powerful than the others- he was likely after that person. But he would have killed everyone else and eaten them too. It's...just how they are." Chad said darkly as he used a large hand to press Ichigo's head against his collarbone.

"So it was after someone? Toshinori, Gran Torino, or one of our students?" Shota asked, sounding anxious to narrow down who the Esapda had been after so that he could begin planning out new safety procedures for said people _immediately_.

"No. It wasn't after any of them."

"Y-You're saying that that thing was after Ichigo, aren't you?" Izuku asked.

Chad didn't say anything. Neither did the girl, for that matter. The young man merely tightened his hold on the girl a little bit, but not enough to be uncomfortable or painful for her as Toshinori finally decided to ask.

"Why would that thing have been after her? What's so special about Ichigo that something so terrible would attempt to hunt her down and eat her?"

Chad was quiet for a few moments, his expression shifting between caution, worry, fear and then finally settling n grim determination as he slowly said. "Espada's absorb the power of the people that they devour and add it to their own immense power. In this way, I guess you can think of them like nuclear bombs. Each of them contains an horribly destructive power all their own. By adding to it, they become even stronger and more devastatingly destructive."

He paused for a moment and looked down at his friend for a moment, indecision clearly written on his face as he then said. "Now, think of someone who's born with very similar abilities to an Espada," He ran his fingertips through Ichigo's long dark hair as he heard an hiss of anger the blond sitting across from them as he went on to say. "But without needing to devour or kill others just to gain it. The ability lays dormant for years while the body matures enough to handle it. And then...it awakens and grows. _Exponentially_. Every time it's used. It grows more and more and more until it simply can't be contained anymore."

"Ichigo's abilities grew to reflect her many life threatening experiences. But the possibility of her growth is so...utterly _boundless_ that she's not only considered to be a living weapon in every sense of the word. But also unstoppable by ordinary means."

"W-What do you mean by that?" Toshinori asked as he cast a slightly concerned glance towards his girl.

Chad gave him a humorless smile before saying. "It means that death can't hold her. Chains, and prison's can't hold her. Limiters can't weaken her enough. No ordinary measures can stop her if she decides to really go after someone or something. She's simply so dangerous that _everyone-_ including cannibalistic Espada's- usually fear the very sight of her."

Everyone looked at Ichigo strangely. Probably finding it difficult to imagine anyone being _afraid_ of her for any reason. Which was naive of them in Chad's opinion.

After all, she was the person who could rip apart the heavens, collapse civilizations, and even create unparalleled devastation unlike _anything_ that even he could imagine.

There was no arrogance in his thoughts and beliefs about this because he knew exactly what she was capable of. And they hadn't managed to really learn anything major about her just yet.

So they didn't know how frighteningly powerful she was. Not like he did.

But once they completely understood...he had no doubt in his mind that they just might turn on her the same way that some of their old friends had.


	38. Chapter 38

Things were mercifully quiet for a while after that.

Despite the fact that everyone obviously had more questions for them. Chad was grateful for the silence. It helped to finally lull Ichigo into a nice _deep_ sleep since she was still recuperating from using her Cero's. And those were painfully draining on her sometimes.

Not only that but he could sense something... _odd_ from her.

It was subtle. Freakishly so.

But it was also tickling along his senses to the degree that when no one was paying attention to them, he let his spirit energy gather behind his eyes. Lighting them up with a coppery amber glow as he looked down at her for the source of the feeling.

He systematically checked the usual things first.

Head, heart, lungs- however he froze up when his eyes drifted lower and caught sight of something small pulsing within her stomach. He went utterly stiff and focused a tad bit more in an effort to see where exactly in her stomach it was. And made a weird strained sound in the back of his throat when he realized _what_ he was sensing.

Alarm warred with a multitude of other emotions for several minutes before he finally let his spirit energy taper off and he shifted her in his arms a little bit so that she was more or less laying back in his arms with her head resting on one of his broad shoulders.

For all intents and purposes, she seemed utterly dead to the world at the moment because of exhaustion. But to him, especially now that he knew what was in her stomach- he couldn't help but feel incredibly worried. So much so that he felt the need to break the silence and ask if she'd been eating, sleeping, and staying hydrated regularly.

Which was followed up by an almost desperate sounding, "Please don't tell me that she's been getting into fights and stuff-" He paused for a second as he realized what he'd just said and he got a _really_ freaked out look on his face that had Toshinori and a couple of the others cocking their heads and eyeing him funny. As he slowly stammered out. "I-I mean, aside from the one with the Espada."

"She hasn't really been in any fights before now. Unless argument's count?" Nezu said in an effort to be helpful.

Toshinori kept staring at the young man like he'd like to say or possibly even do something that was totally out of character. He couldn't quite put his finger on it, but something about the Chad's sudden interest in his girl's health _nagged_ at him.

"What about blood tests and a...uh...exam of her..." The young man seemed to be a bit embarrassed to even mention whether or not Ichigo had had a 'lady' exam of her organs and stuff. In fact his mind blanked and he couldn't seem to even _name_ the exam that he was asking about.

So he just placed a large hand over her abdomen and blushed a nice red color that started to make Toshinori worried. Luckily, Chiyo was there and understood what he was trying to ask after a few more minutes or so of watching him flounder a bit.

Of course when she finally brought up what he was speaking of, every male in the helicopter got very, _very_ uncomfortable. Well, aside from Nezu that it.

"You're asking when she had her last pelvic exam, aren't you?" Chiyo said loud enough to made everyone squirm in their seats. Poor Toshinori felt as if his brain just broke. And from the look of it- young Midoriya and Todoroki weren't doing much better.

Whereas Shota, Naomasa, and Gran Torino all remained weirdly quiet while Chiyo began to ask _why_ exactly Ichigo needed an pelvic exam? But the young man cut her off as he placed his large hands over Ichigo's ears while she slept and practically hissed at her.

"Because I can sense something _alive_ inside of her! She needs to be checked out by a doctor as soon as we land!"

"Wait," Toshinori finally managed to shake himself out of his 'broken brain funk' so that he could ask in concern. "What do you mean by you can sense something alive inside of her?" Which quickly snowballed into alarm as he started firing questions as fast as he could. "Are you talking about a parasite? Did the Espada do something to her? Can they even do that? Is she gonna get sick? Is she gonna die?"

"Calm down." Chad said with a small huff of irritation. "She just needs to be examined. That's all."

"But what could you possibly sense inside of her?" The man asked worriedly as he took hold of some of his messy blond hair in both hands and started to pull when his dark haired friend finally decided that he'd heard enough and growled out.

"He's saying that she's _pregnant_ you dense brained idiot!"

Everything got so quiet that Chad could have heard a pin drop a mile away as he subconsciously tightened his grip on Ichigo a little bit in vague alarm while he wondered whether or not he'd have to protect her from her guardian. After all, he didn't know how he'd react to hearing that she may be pregnant.

Not only that but he didn't know if it was a recent thing? Or if she'd been pregnant at the time she'd engaged in that last fight back home, and disappeared with Rukia.

If she had been before- then her body had likely yet to catch up on the fact that she was no longer in stasis. Which could be a problem if the baby was developing _faster_ than expected by feeding off of her spirit energy. Then again, the baby might be developing just like a normal human kid would.

Sighing, he brushed some of her long dark hair back from her face and merely muttered, "Why is it always you?"

* * *

Needless to say, by the time the helicopter finally landed Toshinori was both freaking out and strangely excited by the prospect of being a grandfather. Sure he was still a little bit on the young side to be one. But well...he he also _liked_ babies.

Like _liked_ them.

They were just so damned cute and tiny and sweet that he could barely stand it!

And he already knew with an absolute certainty that any kid Ichigo gave birth to was going to be just as gorgeous as she was. And he was going to fucking _adore_ her baby.

He was so geared up to find out if his girl really was actually expecting or not that he was practically vibrating with excitement. So much so that he nearly drop _kicked_ Gran Torino when the old man declared himself the baby's 'grandfather'.

Which naturally sparked an argument between the two of them while they were climbing out of the helicopter.

Gran Torino was adamant that he would be a better grandfather than he would be. And Toshinori responded to his words by baring his teeth, snarling angrily, and declaring that he would grandfather the hell out of the baby.

Chad decided to step in right around then and banned them both from even breathing the same air as Ichigo's little munchkin unless they wanted her to unalive them in traditional momma bear fashion. Which sounded _incredibly_ intimidating to them both.

Though the two of them were somewhat loathe to even admit it.

So the two men finally, begrudgingly settled down and wound up sulking from that point on. While Shota practically hopped out of the helicopter, and grabbed them both by the ear and then dragged them off while he chewed them out for displaying such immature and embarrassing behavior.


	39. Chapter 39

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> mentions of assault, mercy killings, and other terrible things. 
> 
> also, i do not know if this even makes sense. but i figured that it was time to spill the story of what happened.

* * *

"A word, Mr. Sado." Nezu said once the young man had Ichigo settled on one of the beds, in the school's infirmary.

The girl was still asleep for the moment. But depending on how well Chiyo did her job, she just might wake up and panic and throw one hell of a tantrum in a few minutes. Obviously the young man must have realized this since he was hesitant to go any further than outside of the infirmary door.

Still, once he was finished depositing his friend on one of the beds, the young man didn't waste any time in removing himself from the room. And once the door was shut, he waited for Nezu to say what he needed to say.

"I would imagine that this is quite exciting for you. With Ichigo being a sub species of human and all..." Finally the little chimera decided to stop beating around the bush and simply asked, "Did you know that she might be expecting when you came here? Are you the father?"

Chad cast a look at the little fur ball, a frown marring his face before firmly saying. "No," Nezu tilted his head to the side a little bit as Chad elaborated, "She's been missing for over four years. Remember?"

"Ah." Nezu said thoughtfully. He hadn't forgotten that little bit of information actually. He was merely wondering why the young man was so...high strung about the girl possibly being pregnant. "I haven't forgotten that. I merely felt that I needed to ask."

Chad didn't answer him right away, he seemed to be weighing the pro's and con's of answering him at all. Finally he made a decision and started talking. "Before Ichigo and Rukia disappeared, a _lot_ of bad things happened-"

Nezu gave the young man with a questioning look, but didn't interrupt him as he went on to say in a slightly shaky tone. "The baddies this time were... _closer_ to us than we expected them to be. We'd fought along side them for years. Called many of them friend. But they had betrayed us...seeing us as a threat as long as we were alive. And on top of that, they had allied themselves with some top ranking Espada."

"A friend, Orihime was at ground zero during the first few attacks. She tried to fight the Espada and had her abilities ripped from her. As well as suffered some very severe injuries. Her heart stopped four times. And she was finally pronounced dead. But Ichigo wouldn't give up on her. So she took a huge risk and summoned her Souten Kisshin. And fed them as much of her own power as possible until she was practically on the verge of collapsing- and directed them to help save her."

"While she was doing that, people were being dragged out of their homes and killed. Men, women, children...there was almost no end to it..." He paused for a second. "Entire families were wiped out. Friends who were out in town, tried to evacuate as many people as they could- _died._ With Ichigo preoccupied with saving Orihime. The fighting was left up to some of the rest of us."

"Myself, Ichigo's dad- Isshin, and a few select others did what we could to _stop_ the senseless slaughter before it got even more out of hand. We lost Isshin and two others during that time. But we managed to save some of the victims of the attacks. Not all of them, but _some_. It was while she was resting to regain her strength that Rukia got captured while attempting to gather information about the enemy."

"When Ichigo finally woke up- our home town had suffered devastating loss after devastating loss. And on top of that, some of our friends had been captured and were suffering _god-knows-what_. She went after them, alone. Because the rest of us were injured and exhausted. And would have only been a hinderance to her if we had went with her."

He paused and looked down at his hands, as if studying them.

"We don't exactly know how bad things were when she got there and began to engage the enemy... In fact, we didn't find out for weeks after she'd returned with Rukia and a few others...that she'd been forced to preform mercy killings on some of the others because they were so badly hurt that even attempting to move them...probably would have killed them anyways. And leaving them in the hands of those monsters to suffer even more before they finally died was just... _unimaginable_ and cruel."

Nezu's eyes widened a bit at the sheer horror of what the poor girl must have had to do. Still he stayed quiet even as he heard the vague sounds of feet approaching them. It was probably Toshinori and Shota. Or maybe even Izuku and another student. And he took a moment while Chad was still distracted to motion for silence since this was something that someone else _needed_ to hear.

Because as much as he was loathe to admit it- the girl would need far more help then they could probably offer her at the school. And the more eyes on her, the better. Especially if she _was_ pregnant.

"Rukia had been sexually assaulted repeatedly by various people. But the most damage to her had been done by someone who could physically alter themselves to look like her husband. So that she couldn't even look at him without screaming or going catatonic."

"So after his first...horrible visit to see her- Renji went to Ichigo and begged her to help him make things right for Rukia by erasing her fear. He then ran off to avenger her after that and got himself killed. But he managed to take out at least a _few_ of the enemy when he died." 

"Things escalated when we found out what had happened to him. Rukia was trying to pull herself together. But she was utterly terrified of being captured again. For very obvious reasons. So when it come to the last fight, we had to split up into small teams. Rukia went with Ichigo and an Espada that we had made friends with- Nel." 

Chad had to pause to explain about Nel. And while hearing of her being an Espada and friend to Ichigo was fascinating to the little chimera, he couldn't help but wish that he'd had a chance to meet the woman since Chad seemed very fond of her too. 

"Nel had come to warn us about a mass attack that would wipe out a whole lot of people. And had stuck around to help us fight when she found out about Orihime, and Rukia both being hurt. She was worried about what would happen to all of us without the extra help. So she wound up being on their team since she knew how to work with the two of them pretty efficiently." 

"Sometime after we split up, the attacks and fighting started in earnest. We'd anticipated something pretty large scale so...we had evacuated almost everyone in our hometown so that they wouldn't get caught up in it. Rukia got separated from Nel and Ichigo at some point and while help was on the way- wound up being confronted by several of the guys that had assaulted her." He paused again and took a deep breath before going on to say. "I reached them when she started to self destruct. I guess that she thought it was the lesser evil. Between a choice of being captured and tortured again or dying slowly? The last thing I saw of her and Ichigo- was when Nel and I were trying to reach her and stop her from self destructing, because if she did...we'd have all likely _died_." 

"But we _couldn't_ reach her. She couldn't hear or see us anymore and Ichigo killed the guy that she was busy fighting and rushed in to help. She grabbed Rukia and told us to run because she wasn't sure how much time sshe had to get her away. And then she just...disappeared." 

"Did the fighting ever end?" Nezu asked after a moment or so.

The pieces of a puzzle coming together in his mind as he realized that Chad and Ichigo were likely either from somewhere that was very isolated from the world. Or were from another world _altogether_ since large scale attacks and deaths like the young man had mentioned- would have been televised world wide in an effort to gain the attention of the hero community, in an effort to seek assistance. 

"It did. But we lost a lot of good people first." Chad said quietly as he finally noticed the others standing a good distance away listening to him talk. 

Toshinoir looked as if he were going to be physically ill. He had such a horrified look on his face while Shota remained oddly silent and contemplative about everything that they'd just heard.


	40. Chapter 40

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> More explainations and we finally see if Ichigo is preggers!

* * *

Toshinori didn't know how to react to what little bit he'd heard. Honestly he didn't. But then it wasn't like he heard such horror stories everyday. Though such things were definitely becoming more and more common with everything that he managed to uncover/discover about his girl.

So while he was attempting to figure out what to say, Shota decided to go ahead and ask his questions. Which started with, "You're both from another world?"

Well, okay. Maybe that wasn't really a question despite how it had been phrased.

Still, this simply gave Toshinori another thing to _worry_ about as he heard his girl's friend inhale deeply for a second, maybe so that he could settle his nerves? Before finally saying slowly, "Yeah. Yeah we are."

He had a vague moment of clarity where he managed to think, that Ichigo being from another world explained so much. But he lost that trail of thought when Nezu asked, "How did you both get here?"

"I've already told you what I'm willing to about Ichigo and her abilities. So I won't go into how she got here since you can probably imagine how. As for myself, her godfather back home is a little bit of a mad scientist. He's good at doing impossible things too. And he along with many, many others all have been worried about her. He's been searching various worlds, parallel universes ect...looking for her."

Chad paused for a moment so that he could cross his arms over his chest.

Nezu noted that the young man's hands were shaking ever so slightly. Likely from the emotions that his explanation had invoked in him, and he was now attempting to either calm himself down the best he could. Or simply trying to hide the shaking so that he wouldn't appear weak to them.

"He found her energy signature pretty fast compared to some of the other times we've lost her. Usually when she winds up in another world, we're able to not only locate her but open up a gateway for her to return pretty quickly."

"So things like this have happened before?"

"Yes and no," Chad said honestly. "Those other worlds were... _technically_ a part of our own. They all inhabited the same space. We just couldn't really interact with them without being able to see and sense them first. And since that's very, very rare. We all more or less existed together and yet apart. So when she'd wind up in one of the other worlds- she was pretty easy to get too."

"Because she was still technically inhabiting the same space?" Shota asked curiously. His mind awhirl with various possibilities.

World jumpers were rare, even for them. But they _did_ happen on occasion. So knowledge of alternate universes and parallel worlds was something that they tended to run into from time to time.

However those world jumpers also tended to destabilize and _die_ after a short time. Which is why they'd never had more than one or two appear in their world for a day or so before returning back to their own.

Chad shrugged his shoulders. "Basically."

"So how did you get here then?"

"Well, once Kisuke managed to locate her energy signature-" Chad started when Toshinori finally managed to shake himself out of his funk and ask.

"What's an energy signature?"

"It's basically like a combination of a heartbeat and a fingerprint." Chad explained. "Literally everyone has one. And each one is distinct for each person. Because Ichigo is who she is- hers tends to be _incredibly_ distinct unless she's trying to hide it. Anymore questions?"

"No."

"Alright- so once he found her energy signature, he noticed some things. One was that her signature was all that could be found. Two, she was much, _much_ farther away this time. And three, we didn't know if she was going to wind up trapped in a possibly hostile environment or not. So Kisuke called a meeting with everyone able bodied and came up with a plan."

"He needed someone close to her to come here and find her. So that she wouldn't be alone, and unprotected."

"She'd have backup, you mean."

"Yeah. Basically." Chad said with a faint smile in Shota's direction. The dark haired man scoffed and the younger man's smile grew a tad bit until they could see fangs. Literal _fangs_! Peeking out of his mouth!

"Ichigo is a juggernaut on her own. But she's also reckless and depends on others to keep her from being...quite so reckless. I volunteered to come after her because I've _always_ followed that girl. I've always watched her back, and helped her no matter what she wanted or needed to do. And since I've followed her through multiple battles, wars, tragedies and such- it was determined that aside from Rukia, Kisuke, Orihime, Uryu, or one of her baby sisters- that I was the best to come here and stay with her since she would respond to me better. I'm to keep her calm, out of trouble. But most of all, _stable_."

"The others were worried that she might self destruct like your other friend did, weren't they?"

"It did come up a few times. But even I know that she couldn't _do_ that." Chad said firmly. "Ichigo's a lot of things, but a mass murderer isn't one of them."

"What do you mean, by 'mass murderer'?" Toshinori asked, uncomfortable with the fact that anyone could say such a thing about his girl.

"Give me a second to explain." Chad said and then carefully did his best to explain his 'mass murderer' comment by letting them know that 'self destructing' was different for them.

There were various levels of it, sure. Emotional destruction, physical, and then there was flat out death. But instead of dying alone, you took people with you.

He then explained that part of the reason that Ichigo had grabbed Rukia when she had been doing it- was so that she could remove her from the world's immediate vicinity to prevent a possible cataclysmic event from taking place once she finally destructed completely.

Lives were at stake at the time. _Hundreds_ upon _thousands_ if not more. And she just couldn't let her friend take a bunch of innocent people with her when she died, just because she was afraid. It would have been a monstrous act that would have left the world itself scarred.

Which was...beyond horrifying to find out.

But then it was also sort of _upsetting_ for them all to learn that they might have been collateral damage. However Chad merely shook his head and told them that they wouldn't have been collateral anything as Ichigo had had the strength to keep going.

Toshinori understood that his girl's position had been a difficult one. Especially in the middle of a huge battle and stuff. So he knew that holding it against her would be pointless. She'd been trying to save as many lives as she could. Not kill others.

Which did explain quite a bit. But not everything.

"So how did you get here?" Shota asked for like the tenth time. Apparently growing impatient to know.

Chad merely slipped a hand into his pant's pocket and held up a small piece of tech. "This is one of Kiskue's inventions, the Hogyoku. And it's purpose is to grant wishes."

**_"Huh?!"_ **

"I used this to get here. And now that I have, it needs to be recharged before it can be used again. However it will likely take many, many years before it's able to do anything else large scale since it's dormant for the moment. But since I'm here now- it belongs to Ichigo."

 ** _"Huh?!"_** Nezu, Shota, and Toshinori all said in unison again.

"She's it's guardian. So no one is allowed to touch it. Understand?" Chad shot them all a withering look before he slipped the small piece of tech back into his pant's pocket again.

And not a moment too soon either since they all suddenly heard a commotion in the infirmary followed by Ichigo shouting all kinds of obscenities as Chiyo opened the door to the room and poked her head out into the hallway and blinked at them before saying, "I think she's taking the news rather well. Don't you?" 

Chad huffed a quiet laugh despite hearing his friend still cussing and then told them that he'd enter the demon's den and calm her down. 


	41. Chapter 41

The second that Izuku and Shoto were off of the helicopter, the green haired boy grabbed his friend's wrist and took off running so fast that the other's boy's feet nearly came up off of the ground. Which startled the other boy a bit.

Especially since he didn't know why his friend was literally dragging him behind him as he ran straight for the dorms.

But...when he really thought about it, he got a vague idea. Especially since he and Bakugo had sort of decided to become Ichigo's unspoken guardians/protectors whenever All Might wasn't around.

Which meant that not only was Izuku suddenly off to see if he could find the blond. But he was also going to speak to him about the latest developments since the two of them practically reported to one another about _everything_ that had to do with the girl now.

And it wasn't really as if he could blame his two classmates any either.

Between her sudden appearance, her tragic loses, and everything else- the girl obviously needed more _help_ than All Might could give her. Hell, at this point she probably needed more help than simple therapy could give her.

So the more people informed of the new situation- the better.

Or at least that was what Shoto figured that Izuku must be thinking anyways.

It probably didn't even occur to the other teen that everything just wasn't any of their business. After all, kids- even teenagers like them- could be cruel and judgmental. And would likely start horrible rumors about the girl that would not only embarrass her, but isolate her, and make it even more difficult for her to blend in and make new friends.

Not only that, but being an unwed single teenage mother was difficult enough. And there was always the fact that she might not _want_ the baby if she was pregnant.

What if she wanted an abortion? People tended to get up in arms about things like that even though it wasn't their body, or choice. Hell, they didn't even like it when unfit people gave their children up for adoption anymore.

Granted he understood many or the reasons why those things seemed to upset people.

But again, it wasn't their _choice_.

However at the same time, he knew that Ichigo had mental issues. She was suicidal, fighting against depression, and yeah- she seemed okay now. But he had a feeling that the news of being pregnant if she didn't already know before hand- just might do more _harm_ than good with her.

Especially when she was struggling to get back on her feet again.

There was also the possibility that All Might might not want to remain her guardian if she was pregnant too. He might find the strain of continuing to help her- _overwhelming_. And what if he didn't want to help her while she was pregnant? What if he wanted her to have an abortion? Or even the baby up for adoption?

In truth Shoto knew that All Might was far too kind for such things and would likely continue acting as Ichigo's guardian regardless of what condition she was in. Baby or not. And mental issues or not.

But the possibility still _existed_.

After all, as amazing the man was- he was only human.

The second that Izuku managed to get them in the door to the dorms, he skidded to a stop and doubled over panting while simultaneously letting go of him. Which was good since Shoto couldn't feel his hand anymore.

Rubbing the tingling appendage while the other teen took a few minutes to catch his breath before he grabbed him and started running again. And didn't stop again until he reached Katsuki's room and barreled right through the door.

* * *

Chiyo watched her three co-workers carefully once she finished speaking with them about Ichigo's condition while chaos reigned inside of her office. She didn't know what that young man was doing, but he was obviously failing to calm the girl down.

And if the girl didn't stop screaming and carrying on Chiyo would have to go in there and sedate her to prevent her from miscarrying due to stress.

"So...let me get this straight," Toshinori finally managed to say. "She is pregnant? About a month and a half along?" He asked as he tried to figure out how this had even happened in the first place.

"Yes."

"Then she was in the hospital at the time she was-" He paused and suddenly looked torn between being pissed and very, very concerned. "Did you find any traces of- of her being..." _Crap!_ He couldn't even say the word without feeling as if he should go marching right to the hospital and beating the fuck out of anyone male!

"No." Chiyo said, understanding his question easily enough from the look of utter fury on his face. Shota wasn't much better since he also thought that someone at the hospital must have crossed a line too. "There's no evidence to suggest that she's ever been assaulted. She's totally intact."

The meaning of her words must have gone right over poor Toshinori's head since he seemed to calm himself down just enough to feel relieved. Whereas Shota and Nezu both merely looked surprised.

"T-Then how did-" Nezu started to ask how the girl had wound up pregnant in the first place if a line somewhere hadn't have been crossed. Buy Chiyo only shrugged and decided to announce that it might have something to do with her biology or being a subspecies or something.

Which was...unhelpful to a degree. But if Chiyo didn't know, and the girl was intact and obviously hadn't known that she was in the family way- what other explanation could there be?

* * *

Katsuki wasn't really sure what to make of Izuku's crazed babbling at first. Because despite the fact that the other teen tended to speak tongues frequently- didn't necessarily mean that he was fluent. After all, Izuku speak was a complicated language to understand sometimes.

Especially if the other boy was wound up and somewhat hysterical. Sort of like now. However the fact that his friend had dragged the half-and-half jerk along helped him immensely.

So much so that after Todoroki finished explaining things to him, Katsuki let out a whistle as he flopped back down into the chair that he'd been sitting in before the other two had come running into his room. And ran a hand through his hair as anxiety gnawed at him, because- _goddamn_.

_Who knew that Princess was such a dirty little girl?_ He thought in bemusement before sobering up and taking a deep breath before then asking, "Where is she now?"

"Probably being examined right now to determine whether or not she is pregnant." Todoroki said helpfully. Besides him, Izuku was literally bouncing around in place anxiously.

"And what does All Might think of all of this?" Katsuki asked curiously.

"He and Gran Torino got into an argument about who's going to be the baby's grandpa. I thought that he was going to actually kick Gran Torino at one point." Izuku said automatically, which made Katsuki snort.

Because of course All Might would do something like that. The man _loved_ kids. And he really wasn't likely to take very kindly to anyone trying to weasel in on _his_ girl and his maybe first ever grandchild.

The blond was actually surprised that their teacher hadn't been more hostile. Even Katsuki knew that the man was already weirdly attached to Ichigo. He didn't care if she was his ward or not. He saw her as his own kid.

Still...the fact that she could at this very moment be pregnant didn't sit well with him. And he was betting that it was throwing everyone else for a fucking loop too.

Finally he sighed and stood up and cast a glance at the other two as he said, "Come on. Both Princess and All Might are going to need some moral support." Izuku stopped bouncing around and nodded his head enthusiastically as he quickly fell into step behind the blond.

Leaving Shoto to to himself for a moment before deciding that he might as well go along too. If only to keep the other two out of trouble.


	42. Chapter 42

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ichigo freaks out. chad is an awesome friend. and toshinori apparently reaches his limit for now.
> 
> i don't actually know if i like this chap. i saw it going way differently. but this works too, i guess. 
> 
> also- i'm thinking of writing a toshinori story where ichigo is his crush and calls him daddy during sex. because it's kinky and makes him weak in the knees.

* * *

The second that Chad had entered the infirmary- he had to place himself firmly between Ichigo and the window when he'd caught her attempting to break the re enforced glass so that she could jump out of it and flee to god-knows-where.

And since he'd cut off the one escape route that she had actually been considering using- he now had no choice but to stand there and watch his friend pace back and forth like an angry, caged animal.

It had been nearly thirty minutes since she'd been told that she was expecting.

And he could tell that she wasn't taking the news very well. But he was hoping that that might change once she settled down enough to talk about things _rationally_.

However even he knew that that was a ways off by how she was acting.

 _At least she's stopped screaming swear words for the moment._ He thought to himself as she made a frustrated sound before finally blurting out, "How the fuck did this even happen? I mean, I haven't been near a guy's penis unless I was trying to tear the damned thing off!"

Ah, now they were sort of getting somewhere.

"You haven't engaged in sex?" He asked.

" _Ew_. No." She snapped before going on to say in a less waspish tone that was more disgusted than anything. "Boys have cooties."

He merely blinked at her for several moments before finally saying in an incredulous tone, "Really?"

He didn't know if he should point out that if boy's had cooties...then what did that mean he had? I mean, seriously. Was she even aware that he was a _boy_?

He knew that she tended to overlook specific details quite a bit sometimes. But even he had to admit that this was a whole new level of ridiculous even for her.

 _Whatever._ He'd address that particular issue later on, once she was a lot calmer. For now the two of them really needed to figure shit out. He hesitated to ask because he worried about what her answer may be. But...he needed to know what she wanted to do.

"What do you want to do?"

She stopped pacing for a moment and looked at him wide eyed. "Do?"

"Yeah, do? With the baby?"

"Abortion is out." She said automatically. Which was a relief to him.

Not because he actually thought that she would kill the baby. Ichigo was a lot of things, but a baby killer wasn't one of them. It was just...with her being so wound up- he worried that she might decide to abort it and then freak out again later from the overwhelming amount of guilt.

And that frankly wouldn't be good for her _or_ the kid.

"What about adoption?" He asked. She answered him by growling like an enraged tiger.

So that was obviously a _no_ then too. And of course once she was finished growling at him for merely putting the option out there, she stopped pacing again and run a hand through her long dark hair and then said tiredly.

"I didn't want this Chad."

He wondered what she meant exactly. And tried to narrow down the list a bit in his head.

But it was a _loooong_ ass list.

She didn't want to be powerful, she didn't want to be a fighter- a warrior without equal. She hadn't wanted to be a Soul Reaper or able to see ghosts or to kill or hurt people. She hadn't wanted to lose her home, her friends, her very _life_ to things beyond her control. She hadn't wanted to lose the one place of solace that she'd ever had.

But most of all...she probably hadn't wanted to be an unwed teenage mother.

 _Ah, that's what she means._ He thought to himself with a sigh. It made sense that she wouldn't have wanted that. Ichigo was a tad bit OC when it came to her wants and needs.

She needed to finish her education and live a little bit. And then maybe settle down before welcoming any kids into the world. But now- those choices had basically been _taken_ from her without any regard for what she wanted or needed. So it was no wonder that she was so pissed.

She was probably really regretting _all_ of her life decisions right now.

Still, he tried to think of what he could say to make things better for her. He kept coming up a bit blank though. Which left her open to start rambling.

"I wanted to finish school. Maybe even go to college for a little while. Possibly do some experimenting- ya know, sexually." He cocked his head as he considered those words, carefully. And mentally seeing Ichigo making out with another girl or maybe even having sex with one would have been fucking hot. Even to him. "I wanted to get a decent job, make something of myself. Be a productive member of society. Maybe even marry Yuzu and Karin and the rest of you off first-"

"You were planning to marry all of us off? Even me?" He asked, feeling just a tad bit surprised that she would do such a thing. Especially since she usually left the matchmaking up to the girly-girls.

"Dude, I had _bunch_ of people picked out for you."

"Male or female?" He felt the need to ask since he technically swung both ways and had quite a few kinks.

"Both."

He grunted and muttered as he looked away from her with his face flushed, "You know me so well."

"That movie that you made to pay the rent helped." She said soberly while he blushed a bit more and then shot her a odd look that had her saying in a slightly defensive tone. "What? You looked good in that movie!" And then she tacked on in a thoughtful tone. "I never would have imagined that you were that wild in bed."

He made a rumbling growling sound but didn't say anything since she wasn't exactly wrong. But they had veered dangerously off topic and needed to go back to the baby and what she planned to do about it. Especially since he was planning to stick around and keep an eye on her.

"What do you want to do?" He asked again. But her mind had apparently slid right into the gutter.

"Well, after watching that movie, I sort of wanted to ambush you and tie you to the bed-"

He bristled a little bit and hissed, "Pervert! That isn't what I meant!"

She blinked at him and heaved a sigh. "Oh, right...sorry." She said before tacking on, "In all honesty, I just don't know what I want to do yet. I'm still trying to figure out where the little parasite even came from."

He huffed, though he understood. Still he couldn't help but ask curiously, "Parasite?"

"That's what I'm calling it until it grows legs or something. And then it will graduate from Parasite to Tadpole." She explained as she paced a hand over her stomach.

He couldn't help but let his lips twitch a little bit at the pet name that she'd picked out for it. Especially since it sounded so much like what Renji or Kisuke would have affectionately called it.

"You're going to drive that poor kid crazy with nicknames like those." He muttered with a small grin.

"Meh, it'll get used to them." She said with a shrug.

"Do you need anything?"

"A father for the baby?"

Chad rolled his eyes at her and let out a small laugh. "Baby girl, I'll put a ring on your finger _myself_ if it really bothers you so much."

"It does." She said automatically.

He hummed knowing that she really didn't _like_ how being unwed and pregnant would make her look to others. Especially since she was so new here and no one knew her all that well to begin with.

People tended to be judgmental assholes about the stupidest things.

"Alright," He said after a few seconds of silence. "I'll put a ring on your finger."

"Appreciate you taking one for the team, Chad."

"Team nothing. It isn't like being attached to you that way would be any sort of trial or anything."

"Then you get to tell my guardian."

"Oh come on! That's just wrong. I just met the man and he already doesn't like me!"

She chortled at him and decided to sit down on one of the cots while he snarled at her and then spat out. " _Fine_. But if he kills me-"

"He won't." She said. She sounded so sure of that fact. But he wasn't.

"If he does, then you'll be stuck to zombie me. I can't imagine that would be good for you or the baby."

"I'll deal."

"Damn right you will, spaz," He growled playfully at her as he pushed away from the window and stalked over to her so that he could kiss her temple before then heading for the door. He paused when he put his hand on the knob and looked back at her and asked almost hesitantly. "You know that I love you, right? Ichigo?"

She looked at him for a moment and smiled. "And I adore you, Chad."

He grunted and then muttered, "Just checking to see if we were on the same page." As he turned the knob and pushed the door open.

She had to bite her bottom lip to suppress her laughter when she heard Chad say while he stepped out of the room, "So we have a few things to go over. One, Ichigo's...okay now. I think? Two, she's still trying to figure out where the kid came from. And three, we're sort of engaged now. I really need to go and get her a ring."

Which was followed by a tense heartbeat of utter silence before she heard her guardian suddenly roar, _"NEVER!"_ And she heard the sound of two bodies hitting the floor and the sounds of people yelling and screaming. 

_"No! Toshi don't kill him!!"_

Ichigo buried her face in her hands and whimpered. She was going to catch hell for this later. She just knew it. 


	43. Chapter 43

Strangely enough, it was Katsuki, Izuku and Shota that all managed to wrestle Toshinori from his position on top of _his_ girl's friend. Where he'd been slugging him repeatedly with the hand that he was pretty sure that he'd _broken_ on the younger man's face several moments prior.

Now, granted, he knew that he may have reacted poorly to Chad's words. But between learning stuff about Ichigo's past, hearing that she was expecting a little bundle of joy and didn't know who the hell the father was- and then of course this. His shit-o-meter had simply shot through the roof.

So it was understandable that he sort of flipped out. Right?

I mean, who wouldn't under the same circumstances?

"All Might! Stop!" He heard Izuku shout in a pleading tone as he was literally dragged off of the younger man snarling, and growling in a near perfect impersonation of Bakagu. Just like when he'd won the sports festival.

He couldn't really recall a time he'd been so- so _upset_! Certainly this ranked up there along with the Kamino incident. But young Chad _wasn't_ his mortal enemy.

And he seemed like a genuinely decent young man. I mean, sure, he and Ichigo were certainly fond of each other. He'd seen evidence of that for himself firsthand when they had reunited.

Which just might be part of the reason why he flipped out.

Now don't get him wrong. He would and could _never_ regret becoming Ichigo's guardian. Regardless of her mental health issues, or her past, or even the fact that she was pregnant and didn't know who the father was. He thought of her as _his_ own child despite the little bit of time that he'd already spent with her.

And that was of course, part of the problem.

He thought of her as his child. His little girl. It didn't matter that she would need more of him than he'd originally anticipated. He cared for her dammit! She was his only daughter!

And he was fucking possessive of what he felt was his. Which now included a future grandchild.

So who the _hell_ did young Chad think he was to come out of the infirmary and suddenly announce that he and Ichigo were 'sort of engaged' now?

Was the younger man insane? Did he have a death wish too?

 _How dare this shmuck try to take his daughter from him!_ He wouldn't allow it. No- he couldn't allow it.

He thrashed in the restraining grip of his friend and students, doing his damnedest to get free so that he could finish what he had started. He didn't care if the hand that he'd used to hit the younger man with, was broken and hurting like hell. By god he had two hands for a reason, didn't he?

He'd just hit the Chad until his other hand was broken too!

However he couldn't seem to totally shake everyone holding him back, off. So instead he settled for attempting to kick the young man. He maybe connected his foot with Chad's chest or shoulder, _once._

When he finally sat up and was glaring at him. But that hurt like a mother fucker. So Toshinori wound up practically screaming, **_"OW!"_** Which was quickly followed by him snarling. "What the hell are you made of? Diamonds?"

It _irked_ him that the younger man didn't even seem to be affected by the blows that he'd dealt him.

In fact the younger man wasn't bruised, wasn't bleeding- the guy didn't even seem to really be all bothered by the fact that he'd just attacked him and would likely do it again if he ever managed to get himself free.

Finally Shota had to tie him up in his capture tool just to stop him from trying to lunge at the young man again. And of course by then, Ichigo had decided to come out of the infirmary and firmly placed herself between him and his intended target with a scowl on her pretty face.

"I told you he'd try to kill me." Chad said as he reached out and wrapped an arm around her waist and _removed_ her from the spot she'd been standing in, and set her back on her feet again, directly next to him.

And Toshinori silently found himself applauding the younger man's protective actions even if he was still trying to free himself so that he could hit him a few more times.

She merely muttered. "So you did. Sorry, I misjudged."

"It can't be helped." Chad said with a slight shrug of his massive shoulders. "He's had a lot dumped on him today. I'm actually shocked that he didn't try to attack someone sooner."

"Maybe so, but it's still upsetting." She said as she crossed her arms over her chest and looked at him with disapproval clearly written on her face.

The blond finally sagged in his bonds. The fight quickly draining right out of him as he found himself on the receiving end of the look that Ichigo shot his way.

The only person to ever give him a look like that was usually Shota. So it stung him a little bit to get it from her. Especially when it was actually her that he was _trying_ to fight for.

"You aren't marrying to him!" He finally growled at her as he pegged her with his stormy eyes.

He wasn't actually half as upset as he had been a few minutes ago. But as her guardian, he still felt the need to make his wishes known to the pair.

So there.

"Sixteen is the age of consent in Japan." Chad deadpanned.

"And the baby will need a father." Ichigo chimed in automatically.

Toshinori gritted his teeth in annoyance again as the young man turned his head to grin up at her. His expression a mixture of fondness, tenderness, and something else that he couldn't quite place. But wasn't sure that he liked either. 

He opened his mouth to blurt out that _he_ could act as the baby's father figure. But never even managed to get the words out before Ichigo was squatting down in front of him with her finger pressed against his lips to stop him. 

"Don't say something like that." She said gently. Her tone made him lose any will to speak as she slowly drew her hand back away from his face and then said, "Think about what you were about to say for a moment."

He did. And while he saw nothing immediately wrong with it, his girl was nice enough to point out the flaws in his not-so-well-thought-out plan. 

"It's sweet of you to try and take on so many roles. Really it is. But what you need to understand is that sometimes you just _can't_. I'm your ward. And your my guardian. Think what people would say if you took on the role of not just being my father figure. But my baby's too. People would think that you used your position as my guardian to take advantage of me. Do you understand?" 

Well when she put it like that... He visibly cringed as she smiled at him and went on to say, "Chad's a good choice to be a dad. He's helped me raise a _bunch_ of kids. Including my sisters, friends and even a few very child minded adults. He's patient, warm, and kind-"

"I like doting on everyone close to me." Chad chimed in with a grin. 

Ichigo nodded her head and said wryly, "It's true. The little Parasite will likely love him far more than it will love me." 

"That's only because I'm planning to buy it a pony." Chad said in a slightly excited tone.

"No. No ponies." 

"Okay, a puppy then." He tried again.

"Again, no." 

"Oh come on, every little kid needs a pony or a puppy." Chad said in a disturbingly reasonable tone. 

_"No."_

"This is exactly why the Tadpole is going to like me more." He said with a huff.

Which caused Ichigo to turn to him and say. "If you say anything more about a pony or puppy- I will find the cutest, most fluffiest and adorably vicious tasmanian devil-esque kittens to ever live. _And you will live in terror of them_." 

It was weird how quickly Chad shut his mouth. The man didn't even have his grin on his face anymore. And he was eyeing her in an oddly wary manner that definitely raised questions in his mind. 

He took a moment to glance around at the others and noted that everyone else looked kind of looked a bit curious too. 

However instead of any of them asking the multi million dollar question, Izuku- god bless the boy and his unendingly inquisitive nature- asked for them. 

"Why do you suddenly look so worried? Kittens aren't threatening." He said in a hushed tone. Which caused Chad to glance between him and Ichigo for a moment before then replying. 

"You know all those attacks that have happened here?" 

"Yeah." 

"Well, Ichigo- when she really, really wants to. Is just like a villain. But you know...with the actual ability to _follow_ through with her threats. If she says she'll find the cutest, most fluffiest and adorably vicious tasmanian devil-esque kittens to ever live. She's not joking. She's literally going to drag something home with her that is so damned cute and terrifying- that there is _no_ defense against it even when it's ripped a limb or two off of you and possibly eaten a few people alive just for funsies." 

"There's an weirdly interesting story behind your wariness, isn't there?" Toshinori found himself asking curiously. 

Chad nodded his head with a disturbingly sober expression on his face and then flashed a quick but awkward looking smile at his friend/finacee. 

Ichigo scoffed and rolled her eyes and then decided to steer the conversation back to the baby and stuff. Looking down at him again, she asked. "Chad's weirdness and eccentricities aside. Do you understand now _why_ he is taking on the task of being the baby's father?" 

He did understand. Especially after she had explained things to him. And though he was loathe to admit it, she was right. If he were to assume both the role of her father and the babies- it would raise all kinds of questions about his morals. Which would also give rise to rumors and scandal.

But if she did things like this- people couldn't talk about him. His reputation would remain intact and people would continue to view him as they already did. 

As a hero.

_She's trying to protect me._ He thought with in awe before shifting his attention to Chad. _And in his own way, so is he._

He sighed as he realized that he would have to apologize to the young man for attacking him like he had. And while he knew this, at the same time, he wasn't handing his daughter over without a fight. 

"So you're really pregnant?" Katsuki finally decided to ask, just for clarification. 

"Yeah..." Ichigo said looking a little bit uncomfortable under the teen's scarlet gaze. 

"Cool. I get dibs on being it's godfather." The boy said. 

"Hey! I wanted to be it's godfather!" Izuku nearly shouted as Chad finally got up off of the floor and dusted himself off a bit. 

"Neither of you will be the godfather." He said in a snappish tone before then turning to Ichigo and muttering, "I need to go and get you a ring. See you in a little bit?" 

She smiled at her friend. "Sure. I'll leave the window open for you. I mean, we're several floors up. Four maybe five." 

He grinned at her and then leaned down and kissed her forehead as he said, "Cool. I like a challenge." And then walked off.


	44. Chapter 44

It was later that evening when Chad returned from his appointed task, and just like Ichigo had said she would- she left her window open for him. Of course Toshinori had no idea that the young man had even returned that evening.

He had been a bit busy being lectured by Shota, Chiyo, and Nezu about his _unheroic_ behavior for several hours.

And upon finally returning to his quarters, he was quite tired after such an eventful day. So he peeked into his girl's room to see what she was doing and had found her curled up on the floor, amongst some of her craft stuff, dozing.

After that, he'd grabbed a blanket and pillow since he wasn't sure that he should wake her up just to get her into bed. And made sure that she had those and was comfortable before he shuffled off to grab a bite to eat and then call it a night.

Which was probably why he didn't notice Ichigo's friend's return until the next morning when he got up and when he noted that she wasn't up yet after he returned from jogging- and went to see if she was okay.

After all, she had been suffering from morning sickness off and on for a little while now. Besides, he couldn't just let her spend all day sleeping. And they really needed to sit down and talk some about...well, _everything_.

Whether or not she still wanted to try going into the Hero course at school. Or if she wanted to be homeschooled instead of going to any classes. He also needed to find her a doctor that could see her during her pregnancy. And he also needed to know more about...her relationship with her friend.

I mean, did she _really_ intend to marry the guy? What about finding someone else? Maybe someone less... _tall_ and frustrating to be around? What about _love_? Didn't young ladies Ichigo's age pretty much live for the idea of falling in love, and being swept off of their feet, and living the whole happily-ever-after dream?

Cause he felt really weird thinking of the young man as a son in _any_ capacity right now.

Sure he might warm up to the idea eventually. Maybe when he was a hundred and had a very severe case of dementia. And she was about seventy years old and couldn't be seen as the sexy, pretty little thing that she was.

Because that was all young men like her friend practically wanted out of their girls. _Sexy_ \- and he sneered at the use of the word even in his mind. Because it was not only disturbing to him, but objectifying too- girls. And he found that disgusting.

Pushing open her bedroom door, he fully intended to drag her out of bed if he had too, only to freeze up at the sight of her large friend. Minus his shirt, propped up against the wall underneath the window with Ichigo in his lap, sound asleep.

It took everything that he had right then not to scream at them and throw another tantrum. After all, this looked...terribly inappropriate to him.

And where the fuck was the boy's shirt anyways? Why was it missing? What the _hell_ had the hoodlum been doing to his little girl?!

Finally deciding on a course of action, he slipped into the room. Noting that neither of the two stirred or even twitched at his presence. Tip toeing over to where they were, he took a moment to study them. Absently noting that Ichigo looked...comfortable where she was. Really she did.

And Chad looked as if he were really, really happy about snuggling her while he slept. Which sort of made Toshinori unhappy about the current situation.

Which was also _why_ he was going to kick the young man's foot so that he could wake him. Sure it would wake Ichigo up too. But maybe then he could get rid of the boy and try sitting down for that much needed talk with her.

You know, about her future since that was sort of _important_.

Rearing back his leg a little bit so that he could give the boy's foot a small kick- he paused again when he thought he saw something sparkling on Ichigo's finger in the light filtering into the room.

Blinking, because that had damned well better _not_ be an fucking diamond ring he saw on her finger- he tried to tamp down on the suddenly overwhelming urge to commit murder. With extreme prejudice.

However, it was a diamond.

A nice, pretty, and tasteful one too.

And yet...Toshinori still wound up kicking Chad's foot- which hurt his toes even with his sneakers on- causing the young man to slowly open an eye and glare at him when Ichigo stirred in his arms a little bit as he suddenly blurted out.

"That diamond isn't big enough!"

Which wasn't really the actual issue that he had with the damned thing. After all, even he knew enough about such things to know that the diamond in his girl's new trinket was a carat. Still, he felt somewhat proud of himself for managing to say something to wipe that glare off of the younger man's face. If only for a moment.

Ichigo cracked an eye open at as soon as he blurted his ridiculous claim, and took a moment to lift her head and look at him and then Chad.

Her friend had a shocked look on his face that seemed to slowly be morphing into panic and huffed before shooting him a glare and then laying her hand on Chad's chest and patting the area as she said, "Pay no attention to the crazy, demented blond, buddy. The ring is beautiful. He's just jealous that he doesn't have one too."

Neither of them really knew what happened once she said that. Chad simply moved to fast for either of them to really track very well.

One moment something akin to understanding flickered across his face and the next Toshinori's arms were full of a confused looking Ichigo and the barely dressed young man was practically jumping out of the bedroom window.

"What the-" She started to say as she squirmed in his grasp in an effort to be put down. He was so bewildered by what had just happened that he nearly dropped her once she started squirming. Luckily it didn't come to that before he set her down on her feet and then watched her cross over to the window and peek out of it to see what her friend was doing.

But couldn't seem to find him anywhere.

"He's gone."

"He is?" He asked curiously, wondering why the young man had run off so suddenly himself. It just...didn't seem like something that the guy would usually do. And knowing that and the fact that he'd done so anyways, was disconcerting. "Did he need to go to work or something?"

"Nah. He's doing something else," Ichigo said as she straightened her spine and then took a moment to close her window. "He'll likely be back later."

"Oh... Wait- He doesn't work? Is he a bum or something?" Toshinori asked.

"Bite your tongue man. Chad's a musician. He's just taken some time off of work so that he can be closeby." She said as she took a moment to stretch a little bit.

"Oh, that's interesting." He said in a bemused tone.

She hummed and then went on to explain. "Not only that but he has a _ton_ of hazard pay from his previous work that he hasn't even touched yet. So even if he didn't have a job, he still wouldn't need to work."

"He's wealthy? Really? How do you know that he isn't lying to you?" Toshinori asked. He wasn't trying to be a jerk. Really he wasn't. He was just...curious. He couldn't help but be slightly suspicious of the fact that Ichigo thought that the guy was rich. Especially since it was a well known fact that men used such lies to reel in a girl.

"Chad has never lied to me before in his life." She said in a slightly offended tone. "The two of us worked together for years. So we both have a lot of money."

"Really?" He couldn't help but feel slightly startled by this. After all, if she had money then why not say so?

"One of the things he did yesterday after he left here was get some of my money and put it into a checking and savings account for me. He brought my new card with him along with a few credit cards for emergencies." She said as she walked over to her dresser and grabbed a few slips of paper that were sitting on top of it along with an envelope with writing printed on it.

She held it up for him to see, but he decided to take it form her and look it over carefully to make sure that she wasn't being pranked or something. But it was all legit.

The cards, the papers- he even took a quick peek at her receipts so that he could see how much money she really had.

He also wound up fainting from shock because she had more money in her accounts than he made the first _five_ years as a Pro-hero.


	45. Chapter 45

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Toshi finds out some new stuff about Ichigo.

* * *

When Toshinori woke up again, he was lying on Ichigo's bedroom floor and she was sitting a few inches away from him. She'd taken a shower and gotten dressed for the day while he'd been unconscious. And she was currently fighting to dry her dripping hair.

He could hear her muttered some choice words of annoyance underneath her breath before letting out a loud frustrated sound and practically ripping the towel that she'd been using, from her head and snarling. "Dammit! I need to cut my hair."

Seeing that he was awake now, she took a moment to push her frustration aside and then asked him, "You okay there, big guy?"

He groaned and absently rubbed his head as he slowly sat up as he tried to recall what caused him to faint in the first place. It took him a second to remember all the zeros and other numbers on those bank papers. And when he finally did...he quickly blurted out.

"Why didn't you mention before that you were an heiress?" He asked, genuinely curious about why she had never said anything. He knew that a lot of people didn't trust specific information to strangers for a reason.

Which, hurt him a little bit to be totally honest.

Don't get him wrong, as her guardian and the number one Pro-hero, he had more than enough money to take care of them both. He'd already set everything up a bank account for her, gotten her a card, and everything else before he'd picked her up at the hospital.

So the fact that she had more money than a kid should have- didn't exactly bother him. In fact, it was a _huge_ relief to know that she would be able to take care of herself no matter what. Money wise.

Still, he couldn't believe that she would have purposely hidden this information from him. But then again, he sort of understood that she still didn't know him very well. So maybe it was a trust thing? Because she still didn't know him very well.

He just wanted to understand. That was all.

"To be perfectly honest," She started to say with a slightly thoughtful look. "I've never really needed it. So I tend to sort of push it from my mind and totally forget about it."

He would be lying if he said that he didn't openly gape at her at that lame reply. I mean, how could a kid like her _forget_ something so important? And what did she mean by, 'She'd never really needed it before' anyways? Did she have so much wealth that she _really_ didn't realize that she was practically sitting on a gold mine?!

However before he could think of another question, she decided to go ahead and explain a bit more.

"Besides, my former boss didn't exactly pay us in the normal manner." He couldn't help but wonder what she meant by that. And it must have shown in the inquisitive manner he tilted his head and waited for her to elaborate. Which she did after a few second.

"In fact the first time I got paid, my boss gave me about a hundred and fifty large trunks full of gold bars-" His eyes widened in shock and he began to feel dizzy again. "He also gave me a few medium sized chests of silver bars, and antique diamonds, pearls, sapphires, rubies and emeralds. Like the kind that you get from really old buried treasures or from sunken ships and stuff. I think altogether I've managed to accumulate more than a _thousand_ gold and silver bars and several hundred trunks of gems."

After which she then said, "It was a real bitch to hide it all too. I usually had to _bury_ it all back in the woods outside of my home town just to hide it so that no one would steal any of it," He made a squeaking sound while she shrugged her shoulders and then went on to say, "Anyways, when Chad came here a few years back; he brought his own and a good portion of my own and just left the rest to my sisters. Which is fine. I know that it can be a pain to convert it to normal money. And finding museums, and other places to buy the gold and silver and gems can be difficult. But he somehow managed to do it anyways."

Finally managing to shake himself from his stupefied state a little bit, he asked. "So...it's actually not a trust thing? You've never really touched it at all? It _stayed_ buried?"

"More or less. The only times I ever touched it was to donate money to my dad's clinic for new machines and tools, medicines and stuff. And to help pay for Rukia's wedding. She wanted something really elaborate. The perfect fairy tail event, ya know?"

He didn't have any idea what to say to that. _Any_ of it. It was just so...strange that he couldn't seem to wrap his mind around it. After all, what sort of work had she done to get paid in such a way? I mean, he knew that she had been a soldier of some kind and had even participated in a war before coming there.

But...not even Pro-heroes were so well paid. And they worked for the government!

"How often were you paid in such a way?" He asked curiously. Wondering if the payments had been consistent or not since it seemed like an overwhelmingly excessive amount of treasure to give to anyone for any reason.

"Every six months or so. Depending on what was going on and the difficulty of some of our latest jobs. The boss wanted to make sure that if we ever wound up irreparably damaged, or unable to fight anymore- that we'd be able to afford proper care and not have to worry about living expenses for the rest of our lives. And whatever was left over would be used for our families so that they wouldn't be burdened by anything and could live comfortably for however long the money lasted."

"That's... _amazing_." He said after a heartbeat or so of careful thought, "You must have had a very kind boss."

She shrugged her shoulders again. "Yamamoto wasn't a terrible man. He had his moments where he was cold and calculating. But he did warm up to us. Especially when we kept saving his ass whether we were asked too or not."

She ended the conversation about why she never brought up the fact that she was rich beyond even his imagination after that. Deciding that she didn't want to talk about her old work again as she grabbed a pair of scissors from somewhere and then walked back into the bathroom.

Leaving him alone for the time being. Which was fine by him. They still had other things to talk about once she was done messing. Besides, he hadn't even started their breakfast. So he finally got up and went to do that while she was busy.


	46. Chapter 46

She rejoined him several minutes later. And the first thing that he noticed was that she really had _cut_ her hair. The once near waist length strands now fell just the bottom her shoulder blades in pretty, layered, feathery wisps. Why she had even trimmed her bangs a little bit so that they were less shaggy and a bit more manageable.

The style looked quite nice on her.

In fact he couldn't help but smile a little bit goofily when she brushed past him to make herself something to drink. His little girl looked so cute! Of course this thought quickly soured when he recalled her...fiance. And the fact that he would eventually _see_ her looking so cute.

Clearing his throat a little bit to get her attention, he decided to go right ahead and dive into that little chat that he needed to have with her about her future.

"Ichigo," He said as she turned her head to look at him before he then went on. "I wonder if it would be alright to have a serious talk about your future? Y-You know, with the baby and all."

"Sure. What's on your mind?"

"Well...are you really going to marry your friend? I mean, he seems nice and all but what about love? You know that you don't have to marry the first guy who decides to be the baby's father right?"

"I know that. And you are right. However there are other reasons behind the two of us _agreeing_ to this...relationship. It isn't something that we entered into lightly. The two of us have sides to us that people- no, outsiders- simply wouldn't understand. Not only that, but we're both very affectionate and incredibly possessive of each other- even as just best friends."

"To be honest, a romantic relationship with Chad was probably going to happen eventually anyways. I already know for a fact that he's been planning to seriously ask me to marry him for _years_ now. He just wanted to finish school, get his dream job, and get himself established first."

Toshinori, despite himself couldn't help but feel somewhat resigned to having the other man as a son-in-law now.

"And what about school?"

"I'm going to work towards finishing what I can before the baby comes. After that I'll have to take a small hiatus. But I intend to go back after a few weeks and finish up what I wasn't able to before."

He nodded his head in understanding before then asking, "D-Do you want to be home schooled? I mean, because of the pregnancy you probably won't be able to go into the Hero course. And to be honest, I'm not all that sure how you'd manage to be in it _without_ getting seriously injured or even losing the baby. A lot of the classes consist of combat training and simulations of specific situations."

"That's understandable. And I was planning to talk with principal Nezu and see what he thinks since I don't want to be a bother." Ichigo said as she took a sip of the tea that she had just finished making. "But I don't think that I'd like being home schooled all that much either. It would feel too much like your trying to hide me away. Like I embarrass you or you're ashamed of me because I'm expecting."

Toshinori visibly flinched at hearing her say that. Especially since the thought of being embarrassed or even ashamed of her for being pregnant had _never_ even occurred to him.

Moving away from the stove for a moment, he bent down a little bit so that he could look her in the eye and then said very firmly, "I could never be embarrassed _or_ ashamed of you. Ichigo. I don't care that your expecting. Children are _gifts_. And you are so very brave and strong. If anything I think your _amazing_ , my girl. Never let the harsh and cruel thoughts, opinions, or words of anyone else make you think otherwise."

She gave him a shaky looking little smile as he leaned the rest of the way down to press his lips against the top of her head.

Once that was done, he straightened back up and nearly jumped out of his skin to find Chad leaning against the doorframe of his kitchen. Just...observing the two of them quietly.

The young man looked as if he'd just come over from his home. He had showered, shaved, and was even dressed. He was also holding a small shopping bag in one of his hands.

"Chad, how lovely of you to join us for breakfast this morning. And look, you've even found yourself a _shirt_ too." Toshinori said sarcastically.

The younger man merely gave him a cheeky grin while Ichigo tried to take another sip of her drink and wound up choking a little bit when she tried not to laugh at their little exchange, but failed.

"Careful, _dad_. I'd hate to lose my shirt again and have you suffer through staring at my semi naked body through breakfast." Chad snarked at him as he pushed away from the doorframe so that he could move a little bit further into the room.

He paused to kiss Ichigo on the forehead. Making his girl smile as he did so. After which the younger man held the small bag out to him.

"Here. I got this for you."

Toshinori took a moment to eye the small bag warily before then reaching out to take it from him. He peeked into the bag and then pulled out the box inside of it, and scowled for a moment before opening the box.

"What the hell?"

"I got you a pretty ring too since you're jealous of hers." Chad said motioning to Ichigo while she tried desperately to hide her amusement by trying to take another drink of her tea.

But he could _still_ hear her laughing while he just _gaped_ at the younger man, utterly stupefied by what he was insinuating.

While Chad turned back to Ichigo and said in a sort-of-hushed tone, "Your ring is still much prettier." Which he supposed was meant to sooth any ire that she might feel about having her fiance buy her guardian a pretty bauble as well.

Which caused Toshinori to let out a weird strained sound while his girl reached out and patted her friend on the arm and whispered playfully.

"Nice save, man."

"I try." Chad muttered as they both watched him carefully before he then tacked on, "Nice hair cut, by the way. It looks like you combined your old style with Rukia's. I like it. It's really cute."

Ichigo blushed prettily at the compliment and made a humming sound while Toshinori's brain took a moment or so to reboot itself and he suddenly blurted out, "Wait! You got me a ring?" As he opened the box and blinked when the light reflected off of the large, gaudy sized stone nearly blinded him.

He hissed like a vampire and nearly chucked the damn thing across the room while his insensitive girl cackled at him like a frigging witch.

He shot her a quick glare, and wasn't sure if he should be angry or insulted. All he knew for certain was that he was totally _baffled_ by this unexpected turn of events. So much so that he didn't really know how to respond to it.

After all, he had never expected his...future son-in-law to buy him something that could literally cause him to _drown_ if he fell face first into a mud puddle. Though he supposed that would be a pretty inventive way to murder him. After all, the fucking diamond in the ring that Chad had bought him was excessively _huge._ And it was definitely heavy.

Of course while he was still zoned out Ichigo and his future son- ugh, was there ever going to be a day when he didn't _sneer_ at the mere thought of the word- decided to start up another conversation amongst themselves about the very same stuff that _he_ had wanted to talk to his girl about.

"So? Wedding plans?"

"Small. Simple. Just a couple of dressy outfits, some flowers, small decorations, say our vows and then we're done."

"Reception?"

"I'm not sure. I didn't want to talk to anyone until I talked to you abut what you wanted." She said. Chad made a thoughtful humming sound before finally saying.

"I've had my eye on a specific place in town-"

Toshinori finally managed to shake himself out of his funk to start paying attention again. And though he didn't contribute anything to the conversation anymore, he _was_ listening and gathering what information he could on the upcoming events.

"Oh?"

"It's a nice place. It's got classy vintage style interior. It's got a pretty good restaurant in it, that serves a little bit of everything. They have a menu that spans the entire world. And it also has a dance floor."

"Chad, do you want to dance at our wedding?" Ichigo asked with a mischievous smile. Her green eyes glittering.

"Fuck yes," Chad replied with a rogue-ish grin. "I want to take you for a spin around the dance floor and let everyone admire how pretty you are in your wedding outfit."

"What if I feel so fat by then that I'm wearing sweat pants?"

"Baby girl, if you feel self conscious about your looks enough to dash my dreams of seeing you in a wedding dress..." He paused for a moment to think. "Then we'll just have to fix it later on after the baby is born. Maybe for one of our anniversaries." He said with a slight shrug of his massive shoulders.

"I wouldn't dream of dashing your...dreams Chad. I was actually thinking that we could have the wedding in the next two to three months. I'll still be small enough to fit into a dress-"

"And will still be able to maneuver yourself easily with minimal risk of injury and clumsiness. I get it." He said with a nod of his head before then saying, "I'll have to call my boss and tell him what's going on. And he'll probably set up a press conference so that I can publicly announce our upcoming marriage to my fans."

"Okay."

"You'll have to be there, Ichigo." He said in a stern tone. "People will take your picture and plaster your face all over the TV."

"I know." Ichigo said with a tired sigh. "I'll have to find a way to sort of hide myself in plain sight if I want to be left alone. Especially when the pregnancy advances."

"Operation chameleon?" Chad asked looking a little bit less than pleased.

"Yup."

He made a frustrated sound and then muttered. "Okay, I'll see if I can hook you up with some makeup, some wigs, and a couple of nice outfits."

"Alright." Ichigo said before then tacking on in a slightly excited tone. "I was thinking of maybe having purple or red hair. Shoulder length bob cut styles. Maybe get some violet contacts for my eyes. Oh! And I can have a mole like Rangiku's!"

"If you go with the purple wig, then I'm getting you a purple suite or kimono with a cute flowery pattern or something on it."

"What? Aww, Chad _no_!"

"Chad, _yes_."

Ichigo made a whining sound in the back of her throat that sounded a lot like a puppy whining in distress as she pouted and said. "But kimono's are so hard to move in!"

"I know. But I want to see you in one."

"B-But- Nice things are difficult to keep nice!" Ichigo protested.

"I know. But I still want to see you in one." Chad said.

She sighed, her shoulders drooping a little bit before muttering. "You're a terrible person sometimes."

" _I know_. It's part of the reason you like me so much." He said in a totally unrepentant tone. Obviously not caring in the least. She stuck her tongue out at him and he chortled at her while Toshinori merely shook his head at their antics as he took the food off of the stone since it was finally done.

"Food's done. Chad are you actually joining us?" Toshinori asked since he hadn't actually made food for three people.

"Nah, I ate before coming back. I'll just sit with you if that's okay."

"That's fine." He said as he grabbed some dishes for himself and Ichigo.


End file.
